A Different Way
by Seasoned Writing
Summary: Rose didn't want him to do this. She didn't want him to risk his life for something that couldn't possibly work. Greg thought differently. He was willing to give everything he had to make sure his son was born. AU where Greg makes the ultimate sacrifice for Steven.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

 **The Ultimate Sacrifice**

Time was ticking and Rose Quartz knew it.

Her belly was becoming larger and larger as the months went by.

She wanted to tell Greg.

She _needed_ to tell Greg.

But she couldn't.

He wouldn't be able to handle it. He's just a hu-

 _No, he isn't just a human._

He is Greg Universe, the most amazing man that Rose had ever met.

He was the first human she felt truly in love with. If it wasn't for Greg, than who knows what she would be doing for the rest of her existence on Earth.

She had to tell the Crystal Gems too. They needed to hear that their leader, the one that they stood behind for millennia, the one told them to rebel against their home planet, the one who had led armies of other Gems to their demise, was no longer going to exist as she was.

She was going to become part of something new.

Something amazing.

Something that no one thought would be possible.

She was going to give birth to a human child.

She felt the child, her child, forming within her body. She needed to tell everyone she had cared about.

She needed to tell Greg. It is also his child, so he needs to know.

Greg would often come by the temple at night. He was trying to find a way to make money to provide for himself, as well as his future child. He had bought books upon books on how to raise a child properly, everyday becoming more and more excited in becoming a father.

Rose stood outside the temple doors, as she usually did, waiting for Greg. The others were in the temple, ordered by Rose to stay there until she finished talking with Greg. There was no audible complaints from any of the other Crystal Gems, but there was a sense of tension in the air that all of them could feel.

Rose saw the familiar van come into view and waved as she saw Greg come out of the van. He waved back as he grabbed some papers and some books, taking them over to Rose.

"So how was your day, Greg?" Rose asked, starting the conversation off as normal as she could.

"Great!" Greg began excitedly, "I found an old car wash for sale, I found ideas for a house, and I even picked up a book of baby names that we could use!"

"You couldn't think of a name for our child on your own?" Rose asked jokingly.

"Well no it's not that, it's just…" Greg stammered, until Rose laughed. She always loved how bashful he became when she asked questions about their child.

"Oh ha ha, very funny Rose," Greg said, trying to keep a serious face, but failing horribly.

"So what names are you thinking about?" Rose asked, still trying to find a way to tell Greg about her fate.

"Well if the baby's a girl than I'm thinking Rose or Marie or if it's a boy than Greg Jr. or Otis," Greg said as Rose looked through the book of baby names. One stood out to her clearly.

"I like Steven," Rose said as she looked at the name in the book.

"Steven?" Greg asked, finger on his chin, "Steven Universe…I like the way that soun-"

Greg stopped, leaving Rose to look at him with concern.

"I-I-It's a boy?" Greg asked nervously.

Rose smiled and nodded. She didn't know for sure, but she felt that their baby would be a boy.

"WOOOOOOO I'M GOING TO HAVE A BOY!" Greg shouted as he ran around the temple, arms in the air. Rose giggled at the sight, until she remembered what she had to tell Greg.

The thought of this brought tears to Rose's eyes, which was immediately noticed by Greg, who stopped cheering and ran to check on her.

"Is something wrong?" Greg asked softly.

Rose took a deep breath and looked at Greg. The concern in his eyes only made Rose feel even guiltier for keeping this from him for so long.

"Greg…" Rose began, "I'm…I'm…I'm not going to be able to…to be able to…"

She couldn't continue. Greg placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, "You can tell me, Rose."

Another deep breath.

"I'm not going to be able to raise our child with you," Rose said quickly.

Greg was shocked, "W-w-wait what?!"

Rose continued, "In order for our son…our Steven…to exist, I need to sacrifice my physical form to provide the energy he needs to exist."

"I-I-I don't understand," Greg stammered, tears in his eyes.

"I cannot exist with our son," Rose said, tears freely flowing as well, "In order for him to live, I must give him my life."

Silence followed the temple. Neither Greg nor Rose knew what to say next.

"How long…?" Greg asked, in a whisper so quiet that Rose couldn't hear.

"How long?" Rose replied.

"How long until Steven is born?" Greg asked, a bit louder this time.

Rose looked at her belly and said, "I would say two weeks."

"Plenty of time," Greg said, now smirking.

"Plenty of time for what?" Rose asked, now concerned.

"Rose, I have an idea, but I need some time to set everything up," Greg said, gathering his papers.

"What are you doing?" Rose replied, worried.

"Rose…" Greg said as he looked at the tall woman, "If Steven needs a physical body to be able to be born, I want it to be mine."

Rose was shocked, "What?! No, that's not possible!"

"It isn't supposed to be possible for us to even have a kid, but look!" Greg said as he pointed to Rose's belly, "I would give anything to make sure Steven is born, even my own body if that's what it takes!"

"I can't ask you to do that!" Rose said, tears now falling to the ground.

"ROSE!" Greg yelled, silencing Rose.

He took a deep breath and said, "A child needs a mother. Someone he can go to when he has a nightmare, someone who can tell him that everything is going to be alright, someone who can make sure he stays safe."

Greg's tears were falling to the floor, "He isn't going to be like the other kids. He's going to be someone amazing! You would know what's best for him, not some shmuck like me."

"You don't have to do this…" Rose said trailing off.

Greg grabbed her hands and said, "I want to do this. Let me do this for you and Steven."

Greg pulled her down for a kiss. It was a long one, one that Rose didn't want to stop.

Greg stopped the kiss and began to walk to his van, "I need to take care of some things. You tell the Gems everything."

Rose simply nodded as she watched the man that she loved get into the van. She waited until the van was out of sight when she sat down, hands in face, tears in her eyes.

The sound of the temple door opening had Rose, quickly wiping her eyes and stood up.

"Rose?" a familiar voice asked with concern.

"Yes, Pearl?" Rose replied.

"Is everything alright?" Pearl asked, noticing the van tracks leaving the temple.

"Pearl," Rose said, grabbing Pearl's attention, "I need you to grab the others, I have something to tell you all."

…

Greg knew what he was going to do was probably the dumbest idea he ever had.

He knew that he was essentially giving his life to make sure his son could exist.

Could he go through with it? Did he have the courage to do it?

He looked at the payphone he was standing by and sighed. He fished around in his pocket for some loose change, and slowly placed the quarters in.

He dialed the number from a scrap paper he had lying in his van and heard the phone ring. He hoped that it wasn't too late.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

"Thank you for calling Empire City Insurance, this is Tim, how may I assist you?" the voice on the other end of the line said.

"Yes I would like to make a life insurance policy?" Greg said.

"Of course sir, we have several plans available…" the agent Tim began.

"What's the biggest plan you got?" Greg interrupted.

"Well that would be our $250,000 plan with a starting monthly payment of…" Tim began again.

"I'll take that one," Greg interrupted again.

There was a moment of silence when Tim responded, "Sir are you under duress?"

"What, no I'm not!" Greg exclaimed.

"Don't worry sir, this is a safe place. If you have a weapon to your body or are being threatened I can call the police and…" Tim said, in a worried tone.

"I am not being held hostage!" Greg yelled.

"Ok sir, ok. Please calm down. I need your name." Tim responded, still unsure if Greg was telling the truth.

"Greg Universe," Greg said in an annoyed tone.

Another silence, "Sir, I need your real name for this policy."

"THAT IS MY REAL NAME!" Greg screamed.

"Alright sir, alright. And the name of your next of kin?" Tim said, sounding scared.

"Rose Quartz Universe," Greg said, trying to calm himself down.

"Ok, sir we will need you to come into our offices to provide more information, as well as to make the first payment within one week of this call. The policy will then take up to three days to take effect," Tim said.

' _Plenty of time'_ Greg thought.

…

The two weeks seemed to pass by like a flash. Amethyst was outside waiting in the early morning sun for Greg to show up.

The Crystal Gems haven't seen him at all in the entire two weeks, and they were all worried.

When they heard the news about what Greg was planning to do, they were all shocked by it. Pearl naturally thought it wasn't possible, but Garnet interjected with bringing up the fact that Gem and humans shouldn't have been able to create a child at all.

Garnet thought that there was a possibility of it having some success, but Garnet also knew that there was a larger chance of Greg not being able to do what he had wanted to do.

Amethyst wasn't sure how to deal with the situation. The idea of losing one of her best friends was hurting her, and the idea of having him replaced by some kid didn't help at all.

Amethyst heard a familiar noise. She turned her head to see the van approaching the temple. She ran towards the van, and as Greg was leaving the van, she grabbed him in a big hug, tears down her eyes.

"Hey Amethyst," Greg said softly.

"Please don't go," Amethyst muffled through his shirt.

"Don't worry about me Amethyst, you need to worry about Steven," Greg replied.

"But –"Amethyst began, but was quickly cut off by Greg, "I know you don't want me to go, but I need you to be strong."

Greg gently pushed Amethyst away and walked to the back of his van, with Amethyst following closely. He tossed her a set of keys. She looked at these keys with confusion. It was a set of two keys and a large plastic yellow tag that had "A1" emblazoned in black.

"Those are keys to the storage shed. I have money coming in for you guys so you can either keep it or bring all the stuff here," Greg said as he pulled three large boxes out. One of the open boxes revealed a bunch of red shirts with yellow stars on them.

"I have a bunch of these in all sizes, so Steven at least has some clothes to wear," Greg continued. The sound of footsteps brought the two to see who was coming down. It was Pearl, looking sad, a look that Greg didn't like to see.

"Amethyst, can I speak with Greg for a moment?" Pearl said. She rarely used Greg's first name, so Amethyst knew it was important. She took one last look at Greg and walked back to the temple. When Amethyst was out of earshot Pearl began to speak.

"This is a bad idea and you know it," Pearl began.

"Yeah, I know," Greg said dryly.

"You know that this will hurt Rose more than anything she has ever experienced," Pearl continued.

"Yeah, I know," Greg repeated, annoyed at being berated.

Pearl sighed, "I will never understand you Mr. Universe. You are willing to risk your life for something that might not even work."

"Yeah, and?" Greg said, now frustrated.

A short silence.

"You have my utmost respect Greg Universe," Pearl said.

This gave Greg mental whiplash, "Wait what?"

"You heard what I said," Pearl replied, her face looking down, "You are willing to risk life and limb for someone that you truly love. You know that it may not work, but you will take that risk nonetheless to show you really love Rose and your son. If I were in your situation I would do the same thing."

"Really?" Greg asked, touched by Pearl's comments.

"Yes, I would," Pearl said, a blue tint on her cheeks.

Greg smiled and grabbed two small boxes from his van, one labelled "For Rose" and the other labelled "For Steven".

"Give these to Rose when I…you know," Greg said, handing the boxes to Pearl. She held onto them and nodded.

"Watch out for him ok?" Greg asked. Pearl nodded again, a small smile on her face and tears forming in her eyes.

Once Greg moved several boxes to the temple's entrance, the warp pad beamed. Out from it came Garnet, holding a bubbled Gem. Pearl went to Garnet, whispered in her ear, and walked back into the temple.

Garnet walked to Greg who said, "Hi Garnet,"

"Hello Greg," Garnet replied in her usual soft monotone.

The two stood in silence for a moment until Greg asked, "Hey Garnet, can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Garnet replied.

"Can you see what Steven will be like?" Greg said, his voice cracking as he said it.

Garnet adjusted her visor and placed her hand on Greg's shoulder, "He will be a wonderful child, one who will defy expectations. He will be strong, kind, and will love the whole world no matter what obstacles he faces."

Tears formed in his eyes, which for Greg seemed to be a routine at this point. Garnet removed her visor, revealing her three eyes, and looked at Greg.

"We will look after him Greg. He will not come under harm as long as we're around," Garnet continued. Greg looked into her eyes and saw all three welling up with tears.

"Thank you Garnet, I needed to hear that," Greg said, wiping the tears on his shirt. Before either of them could say anything a scream of pain was heard throughout the temple. The two ran to the door as quickly as they could.

The two entered the temple and saw Rose lying on a bed made from clouds. Pearl was holding one Rose's hands and Amethyst was holding the other. Greg ran to Rose and asked, "Is it time?"

Rose nodded, screaming in pain again.

"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do!?" Greg asked frantically. Garnet grabbed one of Greg's hands and placed on Rose's gem. Greg nodded and placed his other hand onto the gem.

"Concentrate on the gem Greg!" Garnet exclaimed.

Greg put all of his focus onto the gem.

He looked at Rose. She looked at him.

"I love you!"

"I love you tooOOOOOO!"

A bright light blinded the other gems. They all covered their eyes, waiting for the light to stop.

A loud crying was heard.

A baby cry.

Pearl was the first one to look. Her vision was blurred for only a moment when she saw something unbelievable.

Rose was panting on the bed she laid on, holding a small bundle of blankets.

Greg however was nowhere to be seen.

He had done it.

He had done the impossible.

Amethyst and Garnet opened their eyes as well as they saw that Greg had succeeded in his mission.

The three Crystal Gems looked to their leader, tears in all of their eyes, to see that Rose Quartz, leader of the rebellion against Homeworld, holding a baby in her arms.

A beautiful, crying baby.

Rose looked at the black haired baby, who looked back at her and immediately stopped his crying.

Rose felt true happiness and true sorrow all at once.

Her tears began to fall instead of the baby's, as she embraced him as tightly as she was physically able.

"Steven…my beautiful Steven."

…

 **And that will end it guys. This was a request by user 93MANIAC, who wanted a story about what if Greg gave his life for Steven instead of Rose. I thought it was a neat idea so I took the request. Hopefully this story is a great one.**

 **This will be a long one, as we follow Steven and his adventures if they were to happen if this particular scenario played out in the series.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, review if you liked it!**

 **Peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

 **A Growing Boy**

 _(Several years ago)_

 _Amethyst sighed as she sat down near the wooden structure in front of the temple. Greg had managed to get ahold of some money for the Crystal Gems to use for Steven._

 _Greg had left a letter for each of the Crystal Gems, except for Rose who received a tape. Each letter began the same, a greeting from Greg. After the greeting there was a personalized message for each one of the Gems. Out of respect and privacy the Gems didn't say what Greg had wrote for each one of them._

 _Amethyst would often look at her letter and think about a certain passage in her letter._

' _Amethyst, please understand that I will miss all of you. I think that Rose would be a better parent to Steven than I could ever be, and with you three around I know that he will be in good hands. Please make sure he stays safe. If he's anything like I was when I was a kid he'll be a handful, even for the best of parents. I left you a nice little something in the storage shed, which I managed to clean up for the most part. I will miss you all, From Greg'_

 _Amethyst held the keys that Greg had given her the day Steven was born. She hadn't gone by to check on the shed, mostly because the Gems have been working on a house for little Steven. He wasn't comfortable with the temple, always crying when he was inside any of the rooms, so Rose had decided that his own "room" would have to do._

 _His "room" had turned out to be a house, which all four of them have been working on, Rose less so for obvious reasons._

 _A call for Amethyst was heard from the house, so she slowly stood up and walked to the source of the voice._

 _It was Rose, holding Steven in her arms._

" _Amethyst, could you watch Steven for me?" Rose asked softly._

" _Yeah, sure," Amethyst said reluctantly._

 _Rose knelt down and held Steven out for Amethyst to carry. Amethyst wasn't new to holding Steven, she was not really comfortable with it quite yet._

" _Thank you Amethyst. I need to check on the moss, and that is too dangerous for Steven to handle right now," Rose explained. Amethyst nodded saying, "It's no problem. I'll keep an eye on him."_

 _Rose smiled and turned back to the incomplete house leaving Amethyst alone with Steven. He was looking right at Amethyst. His smile reminded Amethyst of Greg's smile, big and goofy, but sincere._

 _Amethyst looked to see if anyone was around, and when she was sure that the coast was clear she looked at Steven and said, "C'mon lil man, I'll show you something really cool."_

…

(Present Day)

"NOOOOOO!"

Steven was horrified beyond belief, "Tell me this isn't happening Lars! Please tell me it's not real!"

He grabbed the teen's shirt as he began to cry. Lars angrily replied, "Get off me, I'm working here!"

Steven promptly let go and looked at the other person working at the Big Donut, Sadie.

"Sorry Steven, I guess they stopped making them," Sadie replied sweetly.

Steven was severely disappointed, "Why would they stop making Cookie Cats? They are the most amazing and scrumptious ice cream sandwich in the world!"

"They stopped making them because no one buys them anymore. Lion Lickers are beating them by a mile," Lars said as he continued to stock the shelves.

"Aww but those are gross! They don't even look like real lions!" Steven proclaimed.

"Sorry Steven, but that's the way these things happen sometimes," Sadie said, trying to console Steven. It wasn't working, so Sadie said, "Hey Steven, you could take the freezer if you want."

Steven nodded, a small smile on his face. He grabbed the freezer with ease and walked out of the store. Steven could hear Lars and Sadie talking, but he couldn't make it out. From what it sounded like they were making plans or something.

Steven walked towards the house. He was humming the theme from the ads he had heard on TV and as he climbed up the steps he had heard fighting noises inside.

He listened closely and heard several high pitched screeches, so he had assumed that there were monsters inside. He sat down near the front steps, lifted the bottom of his shirt, and looked down. Just a plain belly button. His mom said that this was because his dad sacrificed his physical form for him to be born, so he didn't have a gem on his body.

Steven would often search to see if he had a gem somewhere, anywhere, on his body, but there was no luck. No matter how many times he looked he didn't have a gem anywhere on his body. This meant that he didn't have any powers, and living with a bunch of super powered women, he felt like a burden.

The high pitched screams had inside had stopped, so Steven stood up, picked up the Cookie Cat freezer and walked in.

"Hi guys!" Steven said in his usual cheery tone.

Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were standing around with their weapons drawn and looking around the house. Pearl replied, "Hello Steven, we were just taking care of some centipeetle's, which somehow managed to make their way inside the temple."

"Oh. Where's my mom?" Steven asked.

"She's off doing a mission," Amethyst replied with her mouth filled with a sandwich.

Steven was used to hearing this. His mother would often go on missions on her own, so Steven would often hang around town waiting for her to get back. He took the Cookie Cat freezer to the kitchen and began to look for an outlet when the warp pad activated.

Rose stood on the warp pad with a large bag in her hand. Steven left the Cookie Cat freezer on the floor and ran to his mother, giving her the biggest hug he could muster.

Rose chuckled as she picked up her son effortlessly and hugged him back.

"Hello Steven, how was your day?" Rose asked.

"It was ok…until I found out that there are no more Cookie Cats and there never will be," Steven said, his voice still saddened by the news.

Rose gasped, "What? Well if there aren't any more Cookie Cats, then what do I have here?"

Rose raised the bag to Steven and when he looked inside he gave an almost exaggerated gasp. The bag was filled to the brim with Cookie Cats. Not just the regular Cookie Cats, there were also a bunch of different types of Cookie Cats.

"I heard the news, so I went looking for as many as I could," Rose said.

Steven beamed his thousand watt smile and hugged his mother even tighter, "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!"

Rose gave him the bag and he ran to the Cookie Cat freezer, plugged it in, and placed all of the Cookie Cats he could inside, putting what couldn't fit inside the small freezer into the other freezer.

"I will treasure these forever," Steven said, taking a Cookie Cat out of the freezer, "After this one."

He opened the wrapper, closed his eyes, and took a bite out of the Cookie Cat. As he chewed the Cookie Cat his body began to glow. Every Crystal Gem looked shocked at this, and as he took another bite out of the ice cream sandwich, a round object began to form in front of him.

"Steven open your eyes!" Amethyst yelled out.

"Wha-?" Steven said, opening his eyes and looking in front of him, seeing the disk form in front of him. It didn't last long and faded away. Steven took another bite of the Cookie Cat, but nothing happened.

"I do have powers!" Steven yelled in excitement.

Pearl was very clearly puzzled, "But…how? He doesn't have a gem, we've searched him dozens of times!"

Rose just stood there with her mouth agape. She couldn't believe it. She looked at Garnet, who looked as stoic as usual.

"Garnet…" Rose began.

"It was a faint possibility that some of your powers would carry over to Steven," Garnet said, adjusting her visor.

"Who cares how he got them?! He has them now!" Amethyst exclaimed, going over to Steven and carrying him around for a sort of victory lap around the house.

Rose wasn't sure how to feel about this. On one hand she was happy that Steven had powers, but on the other hand she was sure that he would be a completely human child.

The cries of laughter from both Steven and Amethyst echoed around the house. Rose walked to the two and asked Amethyst to put Steven down. She did so, albeit with reluctance, and Rose said, "Steven, would you come with me to my room please?"

Steven nodded as he followed his mother into her room. He had been in here a few times before, but he was still surprised at how beautiful the room was. Pink clouds everywhere that made Steven feel comfortable, yet at the same time he felt sad. He couldn't explain it but every time he had come inside the room he felt like a part of him is crying.

"Mom…?" Steven began before Rose hugged him. This wasn't any normal hug, and Steven could feel it. He could feel the back of his head getting wetter, which meant that his mother was crying.

"Mom, why are you crying? Did I do something wrong?" Steven asked sincerely.

"No Steven, you did nothing wrong," Rose began as she let go of the embrace, tears still in her eyes, "I just want to show you something."

Rose grabbed her son's hand and led him deeper into the room. Everything still looked the same, pink clouds everywhere, until something in the distance popped into view. Steven couldn't tell what it was, in fact for all he knew it was a construct of the room.

As the two approached the object, Steven managed to process what the object was, a white van with intricate designs on the outside. Steven liked the way the van looked, and then he noticed that the van had a name on it.

"Mr. Universe?" Steven asked, not sure what was happening.

"This van belonged to your father," Rose said, squeezing Steven's hand.

Steven looked at the van and the small sadness inside seemed to grow even larger. He touched the side of the van and looked at the name once again.

"This was dad's?" Steven asked softly. Rose nodded and pointed to the back of the van. Steven walked over to the back of the van and reached for the handle. He stopped.

He didn't know how to feel about this. He never even knew his father aside from the stories he had heard from his mother and the other Crystal Gems. Steven knew that his father was a musician that was a nice guy overall, but apart from that he had no clue who his father was. He didn't even know his name.

Rose placed her hand on top of Steven's and looked at him. Her tears had lessened and she was smiling. Steven knew that this was something he had to do. The two reached for the handle on the back of the van and opened it together.

Steven looked inside and saw a bed on the floor of the van, several pictures lined the walls, and there was a small TV with a VCR on it. Steven climbed inside and sat on the bed. When he looked around at the picture he saw a man who looked very similar to Steven.

"Is that…Dad?" Steven asked his mother, eyes becoming glassy.

Rose nodded as she looked around the van. She would often visit the van, but never looked inside it. She waited until she thought Steven was ready to see it to look inside.

"I brought it in here right after your father…" Rose didn't continue, but Steven knew what she meant. Steven looked around and saw a single small box in the corner of the van. Steven grabbed the box and looked at the label and gasped.

"Mom, I need to show this to Amethyst!" Steven exclaimed. Rose looked confused until she saw the tape. She nodded and led Steven out of the room.

Luckily for Steven, Amethyst was sitting on the couch in the living room doing nothing.

"Sup Steven," Amethyst said lazily. Steven didn't return the greeting, instead grabbing Amethyst's hand and dragging her outside.

"Steven what's going on!?" Amethyst asked while Steven was taking her into town. Steven didn't say anything.

After a few minutes of running Steven stopped at U-Stor, the storage facility. Amethyst was really confused and asked, "Steven, what are we doing here?"

Steven was still silent as he held out the box from the van. Amethyst looked at the box and read the title out loud, "Lil Butler: Series Finale? Where did you get this?"

"My dad's van," Steven said, shocking Amethyst. She didn't look into the van after Steven was born, none of the Crystal Gems did. She looked at Steven and asked, "Did Rose…?"

Steven nodded as he fished his pocket for the key to the storage unit. He opened the storage and headed towards the back, knowing where to find what he was looking for. Amethyst followed, holding the small box close to her chest.

Steven stopped right in front of a small television set that was connect to a VCR. He removed the tape from the VCR and motioned for Amethyst to give him the box. He took the contents of the box, an old VHS tape, turned on the TV, and placed the tape inside the VCR.

A small jingle played and then some familiar lyrics played.

…

 _(Several years ago)_

 _Amethyst took baby Steven out to the storage unit, somewhere she and Greg would often hang out. The two hung around here if the others were out doing a mission, leaving her and Greg alone._

 _Amethyst opened the storage unit, which to most would seem like a pile of junk, but to Amethyst was old memories. She looked inside the storage unit, trying to find what she was looking for, but holding a baby made things exceptionally harder._

 _It took her some time until she found the box of old tapes Greg and her used to watch. Amethyst looked around and saw the old TV set was still plugged in, as was the VCR. She rummaged through the box until she found a tape labelled, "Lil' Butler Pilot"._

 _She turned on the TV and put the tape inside. After a few moments of waiting the opening jingle of the show played._

" _An orphan boy with sass and pep, got dropped off on our mansion step, Lil' Butler, Lil' Butler!"_

 _Amethyst looked down at Steven, who was entranced with the opening and said, "Me and your dad used to watch this all the time."_

"… _and teach us lessons 'bout ourselves, Lil' Butler. Lil' Butler that's yooouuu!"_

" _You people have too much money!" Amethyst said along with the titular character. She and Steven were watching the show, and during a scene involving a lost cat, Amethyst started crying._

 _She didn't like to cry, but watching the show brought up the fact that Greg wasn't around anymore._

' _I should probably turn this off' Amethyst thought to herself, but before she could do anything she noticed that Steven was looking at her. He seemed to have noticed that Amethyst was crying. She quickly wiped her tears and said, "Oh don't worry Steven, I'm fine! Really I-"_

 _Before she could finish Steven hugged her._

 _Well it was an attempt at a hug._

 _He didn't completely understand the concept of sadness, but he knew that whenever he was crying, his mom would always hug him to make him feel better._

 _Amethyst hugged him back, tears now flowing freely._

 _The two stayed inside watching the show until late in the evening. Steven was fast asleep as the episode ended. Amethyst didn't want to get up to change the tape, so she stayed sitting down, holding Steven._

…

(Present Day)

"Well Lil' Butler this is the last time we'll ever see you, do you have anything to say?"

"Just one thing…you people have too much money!"

A laugh track finished the episode as a car drove off. Once the ending credits began to play Steven looked to Amethyst.

"What did you think of the finale?" Steven asked.

"Ehhh, they should have brought the daughter back for the last episode," Amethyst said shrugging.

"But how would she have come back from space?" Steven asked.

"It's not that hard. I mean they could have had some sort of call from where she was stationed to say bye to Lil' B," Amethyst replied.

"I guess. I still liked it," Steven said, standing up to get the tape out of the VCR.

"Well that's all for Lil' Butler, I guess," Amethyst said, "What do you want to do now?"

Steven put his finger on his chin and looked at the box full of tapes, "Want to watch them again?"

Amethyst gave a small smile and nodded. Steven gave a wide smile and pulled out the pilot episode of "Lil' Butler".

Once he put it in he said, "Do you think the others want to watch?"

"Nah, they're probably busy doing something important." Amethyst said.

…

(Back at the Temple)

"Rose, we've spotted a Red Eye approaching the Earth," Pearl said in a worried tone.

"How long until it enters the atmosphere?" Rose asked, very seriously.

"Approximately two hours," Garnet said, adjusting her visor.

"Is there any way that we can destroy it discreetly?" Rose asked.

"A shot from the light cannons will be able to destroy it if we have a good angle," Garnet replied.

"Then we take the light cannons and destroy it before it becomes visible from the ground," Rose said while walking towards her room.

"What about Steven and Amethyst?" Pearl asked.

"Amethyst is with Steven. The two are probably watching the tape that was in the van," Rose said.

"There was a tape in the van?" Pearl asked, "But how did Steven get into the van?"

"I brought him to it," Rose said, "He should know more about his father and I thought now was the time to do it."

"But why? We now know he has powers and with proper training…" Pearl began, but was stopped when Rose held up her hand.

"Steven does have powers, but he isn't ready to know about the war," Rose began, "We will train him, but the less he knows about the past, the better off he'll be."

Rose looked at Garnet, who just looked down, "It will be better right?"

Garnet took a moment and said, "No matter what decision you make, Homeworld is still a threat. We will need to tell Steven at some point, the sooner we tell him the better prepared he will be."

"Prepared for what?" Pearl asked.

"An invasion. It could be as large as an armada or as small as single ship, but that doesn't matter. Once there is word of Gems on Earth, we could be facing another war," Garnet responded.

Pearl looked solemn. She didn't want Steven to have to experience the hardships of war, especially against Homeworld. She asked, "When should we tell him?"

Rose sighed, "I don't know."

The three looked out to the sky, trying to figure out if everything would work out in their favor.

Rose whispered to the night, "Greg, what do we do?"

…

(That Night)

Steven and Amethyst had come home much later, and after a scolding from Pearl, Steven was sent to bed. Amethyst said good night and went to her room, leaving Steven alone in the house.

Steven dressed in his pajamas and tried to go to sleep, but had a hard time doing so. He was feeling wide awake, which wasn't common for Steven. So he did what his mother would do to help him go to sleep.

He began to hum.

He wasn't humming anything in particular, but whenever he or his mother hummed in bed, it seemed to always help him sleep.

This was no exception. After humming for what seemed like a minute, his eyes felt heavy. They slowly fell until they were completely closed, and Steven was drifting off to sleep.

 _ **He was in the middle of town.**_

 _ **Alone.**_

 _ **He tried to call out to someone, but before he could a flash of light appeared in front of him.**_

 _ **He covered his eyes as quickly as he could, but that could only do so much. After what seemed like hours, Steven opened his eyes.**_

 _ **It was a small ball of blue light.**_

" _ **Hello Steven," the ball of light said in a soft voice.**_

" _ **Umm, hi…ball of light," Steven replied.**_

" _ **So that's what I look like eh?" the light replied, "Ah well, that doesn't really matter."**_

 _ **Steven was really confused. He had to be having a dream, but it all felt very real to Steven.**_

" _ **Look Steven, I don't know how long I can talk to you, but I need to tell you something very important!" the light said loudly.**_

" _ **What? What do you need to tell me?" Steven asked.**_

 _ **The light began, "The Crystal Gems are not doing so great right now. Something big is going to happen."**_

" _ **What's going to happen!?" Steven asked hurriedly.**_

" _ **I don't know, but it's something big. I need you to insist on training. No matter what the other Gems say, no matter what your mother says, you need to get stronger," the light replied.**_

" _ **How do you know all this?" Steven asked the light.**_

" _ **Trust me. I know this all seems weird and strange, but please trust me on this!" the light begged.**_

 _ **Steven wasn't sure what to do. The light floated lower and continued to speak, "Please."**_

 _ **The way the light spoke made Steven feel…safe. It wasn't something that he could explain, but he felt like he could trust the light.**_

" _ **Ok. I trust you," Steven said.**_

 _ **Suddenly the ground around him began to shake and he heard the light yell, "Steven!"**_

His eyes opened. The sun was shining brightly through the window. He sat up straight and looked around. All he saw was Pearl making breakfast.

Pearl noticed that Steven was awake and said, "Good morning Steven!"

"Uh, good morning, Pearl," Steven said as casually as he could.

"Garnet and Amethyst are on a mission and your mother is in her room. Do you want me to tell her that you're awake?" Pearl asked, placing eggs onto a plate.

"Yes please," Steven said, getting out of bed. Pearl set the eggs and toast on the table and went to the temple door. Once she was inside, Steven quickly changed out of his pajamas and into his usual clothes and when he sat on the table the temple door opened.

Rose and Pearl walked out and Rose whispered into Pearl's ear. Pearl nodded and stood on the warp pad and was transported away, leaving Rose and Steven alone.

"Good morning Steven!" Rose said cheerily.

"Good morning Mom," Steven replied less enthusiastically. This was noticed by Rose quickly and she gave a concerned look and asked, "Is something wrong, Steven?"

"I, uh…had a weird dream," Steven said.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rose asked.

"I was in the middle of town, alone, and this ball of light started talking to me," Steven said, trying to remember the dream.

"That is weird. Do you remember what the light said?" Rose replied.

"I can't remember what it said, but once the ball of light stopped talking to me the ground started to shake and then I woke up," Steven continued.

"How odd," Rose said.

Steven began eating his breakfast when a thought occurred, "Hey, Mom?"

"Hmm?" Rose replied.

"Can you teach me how to use my powers?" Steven asked.

Rose was surprised, "Of course. What brought this up?"

"I don't know. I just want to help you guys out with missions and stuff," Steven said, "I mean, I don't want to be stuck here if something bad happens to you guys. If I can help then I want to help!"

Rose sighed, "Steven," she began, "This isn't an easy thing to do. We face constant danger every day, and there is a chance where we can get seriously injured, possibly killed. That is the risk that the Crystal Gems are willing to make. I don't want you to take that risk, but if you want to, you listen to anything and everything that any of us say. If we tell you to run, you run. If we tell you to hide, you hide. If we say that a mission is too dangerous for you, then the mission is too dangerous for you. Do you understand?"

Steven nodded without hesitation, ready to take the risk.

Rose gave a small smile and said, "Then we start tomorrow."

…

 **And that ends this exceptionally long chapter. I meant for this chapter to come out earlier, but technical issues kept me from doing so (shout out to Windows 10 finally downloading and installing after about four days while dealing with corrupted files that I had no idea existed).**

 **All that aside this was a fun chapter to write. I originally wanted to stop about halfway through, but then I wanted to continue on. Now all chapters will probably about this long, maybe longer because I have the habit of either matching or writing more than the previous chapter.**

 **I've also started experimenting with different viewpoints, flashbacks and dream sequences. Just to clarify, the bold is Author's Note stuff, the italics are flashbacks, and the bold and italic combo is a dream sequence. That was experimental, so if that doesn't work please let me know.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading, review if you liked it!**

 **Peace.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

 **We Can Be Friends**

 _(Several years ago)_

 _Crying was heard throughout the interior of the temple. No matter what, Steven would always cry when he was in his mother's room._

 _Rose had no idea what was causing Steven to cry. Even when she left her room, Steven continued to cry. The house was still unfinished, and was not fit for Steven to live in._

 _The Crystal Gems have been working as fast as they could to finish the house, all of them taking turns taking care of Steven and building the house._

 _It was Rose's turn to be with Steven, so she was outside trying to stop the crying._

 _Nothing that she tried had worked. She had tried feeding him, changing his diaper, and even checked to see if he was sick. The crying just continued._

 _Pearl was walking towards Rose and said, "Rose, Garnet says that two Corrupted Gems were spotted in the Southern Hemisphere and she needs your help."_

" _I would like to help, but Steven needs me," Rose said, trying to rock the crying Steven to sleep._

" _I can take care of him," Pearl said with no hesitation._

" _I can't ask you to do that. Tomorrow is your day and it wouldn't be fair," Rose said._

" _It isn't a problem," Pearl replied._

" _Are you sure?" Rose said. Pearl nodded with a smile. Rose gently handed Steven to Pearl and jumped to the temple, leaving Pearl and Steven alone, with Steven still crying._

 _Pearl held Steven, trying to rock him to sleep, still to no avail. She began to walk towards the temple, Steven crying even louder as they made their approach._

" _There has to be something to help you settle down," Pearl said to herself. She looked at the chest that was filled with the toys that the Crystal Gems had bought for Steven. Pearl sighed as she began to look through the toy chest._

 _Pearl didn't really get along with Greg, but she did admire the sacrifice he made. She, along with the other Gems, received a letter from Greg. It was an unspoken rule that the Gems would never read the other letters out of a respect for Greg._

 _Pearl would read her letter every so often, mostly because deep down she did miss Greg. There was a small part of the letter that would make her realize something very important about Greg._

' _Dear Pearl, I know that we never really got along, but the truth is that I'll miss you. Out of everyone, you were the only one who was as close to Rose as I was, probably even more. Rose will probably need some help taking care of Steven, and I can't think of anyone better to help than you. I'm sure that you can handle anything that Steven can throw at you, and I've even left you a little something in the temple to help out if you need it. I will miss you all. From Greg.'_

 _When Pearl had checked the temple there was indeed a large box that had read "For Pearl", but she didn't open it._

 _Whether out of respect or uncertainty, Pearl hadn't opened the box and quite frankly she had been curious about what was inside it._

 _That thought left her mind when she realized something._

 _Steven wasn't crying anymore. In fact he was fast asleep in her arms. Pearl thought that he had tired himself out from crying too much. She glanced at the temple once more, then slowly began to put the toys back in the chest._

...

"Hughuigvabwesifhbv!" Steven said, bathed in pink light trying to summon his shield once again.

Rose had kept to her promise and had begun to train Steven. It had been two weeks since they started and Steven had only managed to summon his shield twice.

After summoning his shield, Steven would be so surprised that he did summon it, that it would disappear as soon as he had noticed it.

"GAH!" Steven exclaimed, gasping for air and losing the pink glow.

"I think that's enough for today," Rose said.

"Aww man, I almost had it that time!" Steven replied, but he kept his end of the promise as well. Whenever Rose said that training was done for the day, Steven would stop training. He had thought about trying to summon the shield when his mother wasn't around, but he figured that the other Gems would tell Rose if he was practicing without her supervision.

"You are getting better at it, you just need some more time," Rose said, trying to encourage her son not to give up.

Steven smiled, and noticed that Pearl was walking out of the house holding a glass of lemonade and a large book.

"Hi Pearl!" Steven exclaimed, running to get the glass and book.

Steven began to read at an early age and often read books over watching TV. He would go through books so fast that he could finish a long novel in less than two days. He would really watch TV if he didn't have a new book to read, which did happen every so often but Pearl would usually give him a new book to read.

Steven gulped down the lemonade and took his book and ran off. Once Pearl was out of earshot Pearl asked, "How is he doing?"

"Much better than I expected, but…" Rose said hesitantly.

"But what?" Pearl asked.

"The times he has summoned the shield, it seems as if his body is expending every ounce of energy to produce the shield. If he were to keep the shield up, he would be in extreme pain and possibly…" Rose said, stopping before she choked on her words.

"Do you think he should stop?" Pearl said with concern.

"I want to with every fiber of my being…but Steven is so determined to be an asset to the team that telling him he can't train anymore would crush him," Rose said, tears slowly forming in her eyes.

"But why risk his life if we can stop it now?" Pearl asked.

"I know…when he comes back, I'll tell him," Rose replied, wiping the tears from her eyes.

…

Steven walked to the usual spot where he read books. A secluded place nearby on the beach that was right by a cliff. He would usually read until the sun came down or until one of the Gems called him home.

Steven sat down and began to read the book. It was the final part to a series that he had fallen in love with. It was about a girl named Lisa, who was a witch, and her falcon familiar Archimicarus, both of whom are looking for Lisa's father, who went missing one day.

He had just started reading the book when he heard footsteps approaching and then coming to a sudden stop. Steven looked up from his book and saw a girl who seemed to be about his age. She had long black hair that seemed to compliment her dark skin. Her eyes were hidden away behind a large pair of glasses and she was holding a book, clutching it close to her chest.

"Uh, hi," Steven said first.

The girl didn't say anything, instead looking down with a slightly red tint on her face. Steven asked, "Did you want to sit here?"

She slowly nodded her head. Steven replied with, "Well you can sit here if you want."

She murmured a quiet thanks and sat a few feet next to Steven. She opened her book and began to read. Steven didn't think much of it and continued to read as well.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and Steven began to feel slightly uncomfortable. He had rarely been around kids his age. The only other kid around his age that he knew was Peedee, the son of Mr. Fryman, and he was always busy working so the two never hung around often. There was also Onion, but he didn't talk and was always doing something weird.

A small cough was heard, bringing Steven back to reality. The girl was looking at Steven and asked, "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, why would you ask?" Steven replied.

"You just seemed pretty out of it," the girl explained.

"Oh, I guess I was. Sorry about that, I don't really see a lot of people my age around here," Steven said, feeling more comfortable as he continued to talk to the girl.

"You don't go to school?" the girl asked.

"What's school?" Steven asked earnestly, bringing a look of surprise on the girl's face.

"Oh, it's a place where kids go to learn about math, reading, and all kinds of other stuff," the girl said, also seeming to be more comfortable with being with Steven.

"Well, I guess the Gems do that at home," Steven replied.

"The Gems?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, the Crystal Gems. They protect the world from monsters and stuff," Steven said earnestly, "There's Amethyst who teaches me about fun stuff like eating a whole bunch of food, Pearl who teaches me reading and math stuff, Garnet who teaches me about life stuff, and my mom who's teaching me about magic stuff."

"Wow! That sounds really cool," the girl replied.

"Well, I bet school is pretty cool. You probably have a bunch of friends there," Steven said, looking confused when the girl looked away.

"Is something wrong?" Steven asked. The girl looked back at him and said, "I don't have any friends."

"What?" Steven asked, "But, you're so nice!"

"Not many people seem to think like you," the girl said somberly, putting her book down.

"Well I don't have many friends either," Steven said.

"Really?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. The only people that really talk to me are the Gems and the people who work at the Big Donut. The only other kids in town are Peedee, who's always busy and Onion, who's pretty weird."

"Well I guess we have one thing in common," the girl said.

Before Steven could reply he saw the cover of the book and audibly gasped.

"You like The Spirit Morph Saga too?!" Steven exclaimed, showing the girl his book. She gasped as well and said, "Yeah, it's my favorite series!"

"Mine too!" Steven said with enthusiasm. The girl smiled a wide smile and the two began to talk about the series.

The two continued to talk until the sky was red in color. The girl realized the time and said, "It's getting pretty late, I should go home."

"Oh, I didn't get your name," Steven said, just realizing this fact.

The girl smiled and said, "Connie, and you?"

Steven smiled back and said, "Mine's Steven."

Connie was about to leave when the ground began to shake.

"What was that?" Connie asked.

Before Steven could answer a large green centipede monster came out of the ground, roaring. Connie screamed and without thinking Steven grabbed her hand and began running for the temple.

The two were running as fast as they could, but the monster was quickly catching up. It began to spit green goo which hit near the kids and when it hit the sand there was an audible crackling sound.

Steven knew that the Gems would be able to take care of it, so he began to lead Connie to the temple.

In what seemed like a split second Connie fell the ground, Steven running a few feet ahead. The monster was standing above Connie, getting ready to strike.

As if by instinct Steven jumped in front of Connie and held out his arms, trying to protect Connie.

Steven closed his eyes, ready to get hit, only to hear a loud thump. Steven opened his eyes to see a pink shield had formed between him and the monster. It was large enough to keep the monster from swallowing the two, so the monster backed away.

Steven put all of his concentration in keeping the shield up, when he looked at Connie and said, "Run to the temple and get the Gems!"

Connie got up as quickly as she could and began running to the house. The monster saw her running and was ready to chase after her when Steven shouted, "Hey ugly!"

The insult grabbed the attention of the monster and it swiped at Steven with its tail. Steven held his shield up, only moving backwards a few inches upon impact.

Sweat began to form on his forehead, concerned only about keeping the monster away from Connie. He heard a voice yell "STEVEN!" and the next thing he knew, he was seeing black.

It only seemed like a moment when Steven opened his eyes again, except he wasn't at the beach anymore. He was in his bed. He looked around and saw Pearl and Connie sitting nearby, both noticing that Steven was awake.

"Steven! How are you feeling?! Are you ok?! Are you hurt!?" Pearl asked in a single breath. Steven replied, "I'm ok, my head just hurts."

He placed his hand on his head. Pearl quickly went downstairs and began to look for some sort of medicine that could help, leaving Connie and Steven alone.

The two sat in silence when Connie said, "Hey Steven…"

"Yeah?" Steven replied.

"You know how you said that you don't have many friends?" Connie said. Steven nodded and Connie said, "Well…can we be friends?"

Steven was stunned, "But you almost got eaten by a big monster thing!"

"And you saved me!" Connie replied, "You are the nicest person I have ever met. You're the only one to talk to me without looking at me like I'm some sort of freak! You risked your life to make sure I was ok…the least we can do is be friends, right?"

A small blush crept onto Steven's face, which disappeared when he smiled and nodded. Connie returned the smile and before either could say anything, the door opened.

Garnet, Amethyst and Rose walked in, Rose looking for Steven. After spotting him, she quickly ran to him and began to inspect his body.

"Mom, I'm ok, honest," Steven said.

"What were you thinking going after that monster alone!?" Rose said, almost yelling.

Before Steven could answer Connie said, "He was protecting me!"

Rose looked at Connie, a shocked look on her face.

"I mean, we were both running from the monster. I tripped and Steven made a shield to protect us!" Connie explained.

"You made your shield?" Amethyst asked.

"Y-yeah. I held up the shield until I heard someone call my name and then all I remember after that was waking up here," Steven said.

"When we saw you, you were on the ground getting ready to get eaten," Amethyst replied. She looked at Garnet, who was looking at Steven. She placed her hand on his head and after a moment she said, "He has traces of magical energy. He summoned his shield and managed to hold it for a good long while."

Pearl came back up with a glass of water and two pills. Steven drank the pills down and a buzzing noise was heard. Connie reached in her pocket and pulled out a phone. She answered it and said, "Hello? Oh, hi mom. Yes, I am ok. I am at a friend's house. Yes. Yes. His name is Steven Universe. Yes that is his name. You want to speak with one of his parents?"

Rose held out her hand and Connie gave Rose the phone, to which Rose answered, "Hello? Yes this is Rose Universe. Yes, she is at our house. Yes, she is fine. We can keep her here until you come by. In Beach City, yes. We live on the beach house near the cliff with a lighthouse on it, you can't miss it. Yes, it will be nice to meet you as well. One moment please."

Rose handed the phone back to Connie who went back to talking with her mother. It didn't last long when Connie said good bye and closed her phone.

"My parents should be here in about thirty minutes," Connie said.

"Well what do you want to do to pass the time?" Steven asked. Connie placed a finger on her lips when her stomach rumbled, giving Connie a slight look of embarrassment.

"I'll make you two something to eat," Rose said, both Connie and Steven nodding. Rose took the kids to the kitchen and began making them something to eat.

Rose made some simple sandwiches, ham and cheese with the crusts cut, and some carrots on the side. It wasn't much, but that was all they had. Normally Steven and the Gems would go shopping at the end of the week, but Steven has been eating a lot more since he had begun his training so they would run out of food quicker than usual.

Steven was eating his sandwich relatively quickly when he noticed something odd. His mother wouldn't eat at all, Gems didn't need to, but she made herself a plate as well. Steven wanted to bring this up, but he didn't want to make things awkward for Connie.

Once the three were done eating a knock on the door was heard.

"That must be your parents," Rose said, walking up to the door. When she opened the door, she didn't see anyone outside. She looked down and saw a package on the ground and said, "Steven, could you come over here please."

Steven walked to the front door and noticed the package as well.

"Did you order something?" Rose asked.

"Not that I can remember," Steven replied, picking up the package. It was a plain brown box, but it looked like it had been sitting around for a long time. Water had stained the box, but it looked like whatever was inside was protected.

He opened the box and audibly gasped.

 _(Several years ago)_

 _It was Pearl's day to watch over Steven. He wasn't crying as much as yesterday, but he still did cry a bit_

 _The box that Greg gave to her was still on her mind, so before she took Steven she managed to hide the box on the beach. She knew that if she took Steven to the temple that he would begin crying again, and it would take a long time for him to settle down._

 _So when she knew that the other Gems would not be around, she walked to where she had hidden the box on the beach, carrying Steven._

 _She placed Steven on the ground near the box as gently as she could and opened the box. Steven was also curious about the box and began to try and crawl inside it._

 _Books._

 _There were stacks and stacks of books. The books ranged from technical manuals to children's books. She picked up one called "The Lost Island" and leafed through it. It seemed to be pretty standard human fantasy about an island that may or may not exist._

 _She was about to put it back when she noticed that Steven was entranced by the cover._

 _It was a picture of a boat that was riding through some rough water and what appeared to be a tentacle rising from the water, ready to strike._

 _Pearl then said, "Do you want me to read you the story?"_

 _Steven didn't understand what she said, but he smiled nonetheless. Pearl gave a small smile in return and opened the book to the first page._

" _It was a dark night. A cold night. A night that even the toughest of sailors would avoid. Not me. I knew that tonight would be the only time that the docks would be clear enough for me to sail. It wasn't a big boat, but it could get the job done. There were tales of an island that had silver sands and trees with golden leaves that held a treasure even more valuable than the sand and the leaves. I didn't know what kind of treasure it was, but I intend to find it." Pearl read out loud, raising her voice in a dramatic tone when appropriate._

 _Steven was enthralled with Pearl reading. Not so much for the story itself, but the way that Pearl read the story. She was doing her best to act dramatic when the story called for it, sad when it needed to be sad, and glorious when the hero triumphed._

 _Pearl continued to read the story for well over three hours, becoming engrossed with the story herself, when she had heard her name being called. She looked around and say Rose approaching the two. Pearl looked at Steven, who was fast asleep at this point, and placed a finger on her lips._

 _Rose slowed her pace and when she was upon the two, she whispered, "Garnet needs your help."_

 _Pearl nodded, marking her spot in the book by bending the corner of the page. She was going to set the book back in the box when Rose motioned for Pearl to give her the book. Pearl handed Rose the book and Rose opened it to where she had left off._

 _Rose smiled and began to read the book, and while it was not as grandiose as Pearl read, it was enough to keep Steven asleep while Pearl left to help Garnet._

(Present Day)

"BOOOKSS!" Steven exclaimed.

The box was filled with about a dozen hard cover novels, the smallest one being the size of Steven's largest book.

"Who sent you books?" Connie asked, looking through some of the books as well.

Steven looked around the box and said, "It doesn't have a return address."

"Any letters?" Pearl asked, also looking at the books.

Steven took each one of the books out and looked for a letter, a note, anything that could give him a clue on who sent him the books. Before he could continue his search, another knock on the door was heard.

Rose went to the door again and this time someone was standing at the door. A woman who looked like a much older Connie was standing with her arms crossed.

"Hello, I am Doctor Maheswaren, Connie's mother," she said holding out her right hand. Rose grasped Connie's mother's hand in a firm handshake and replied, "Hello, my name is Rose Universe, Steven's mother. Please come in."

"Thank you, but it's late and I need to take Connie home," Dr. Maheswaren said, looking at her daughter sternly.

"Well maybe another time then," Rose said.

Connie turned to Steven and said, "Well I guess this is good-bye."

"Can you come by tomorrow?" Steven said. Connie turned to her mother and after a moment of thinking, Dr. Maheswaren nodded.

Both Connie and Steven smiled widely.

Connie walked to her mother and gave one last wave before the two walked to their car. Steven walked outside and waved at the two as they drove away.

Once the car was gone, Steven let a loud yawn escape his mouth. Rose said, "I think it's time for someone to get ready for bed."

Steven nodded and went to change into his pajamas. Normally it would take some time for Steven to fall asleep, but as soon as Steven set his head on the pillow he was fast asleep.

Rose turned off the lights and whispered, "Good night, Steven."

A quiet mumble was heard in response.

Rose looked to the other Gems and motioned for them to follow her to her room. The other Gems followed her and went inside the room, and once the door behind them closed Rose immediately began to speak.

"I don't understand. Steven showed some progress with his abilities, but he was never able to manifest a shield for longer than a few seconds!"

"Well maybe he finally figured out how it works?" Amethyst replied.

"In the span of an hour? Doubtful." Pearl said, placing a finger to her mouth, trying to figure out the mystery.

"Garnet, any ideas?" Amethyst asked.

Garnet adjusted her visor and said, "Several, all as improbable as the last."

"Do you think it has something to do with Connie?" Pearl asked.

"It's possible that Steven created his shield without meaning to do it as a way to protect Connie, but the required concentration to maintain it would have been broken once he realized he had created his shield," Garnet said.

"So he made the shield without meaning to? So did he think he was going to-"Amethyst said, stopping before she could finish the thought. They all looked to Rose, who had realized what Steven was doing. She looked down, a tear in her eye, and whispered.

"Just like his father…"

The Crystal Gems looked to their leader, worried. Rose realized this and quickly composed herself and said, "Ok. Now that we know that Steven can maintain his shield for a certain period of time. What we need to do now is see if he is capable of going on a mission. Garnet any ideas?"

Garnet knew that Rose was deflecting, but knew that it was Rose's way of coping with losing Greg. Garnet adjusted her visor and said, "There is a Gem artifact in the desert that will be causing some issues. If Steven were to stay close then he will see what exactly a mission could entail. No monsters and no mentions of the war."

"Good, then tomorrow afternoon we take him on the mission and see if he could handle something small. We slowly bring him to more and more missions, starting with the easier ones, and progress as we see fit," Rose said assuredly. She then paused for a moment and said, "It is getting late, we should all get some rest."

They all knew that this was Rose's way of saying that wanted to be alone, so they all began walking to the door. Rose then said, "Pearl can I speak with you for a moment?"

Pearl turned to face Rose as Garnet and Amethyst left the room. Once the door shut Pearl asked, "Yes, Rose?"

Silence.

Rose didn't say anything for some time.

After what felt like an eternity Rose said, "Steven said he heard his name being called before he fainted right?"

Pearl nodded, not quite understanding where Rose was going. Rose continued, "When we saw him he had already fainted."

Pearl began, "Rose, I don't…"

"None of us called his name until we saw him," Rose interrupted, "Connie was in the house and there was no one else around."

Pearl began to understand what Rose was talking about. From what Pearl had remembered Rose called out to Steven while he was unconscious on the ground with the Centipeetle mother ready to eat him.

"Then who called his name?" Pearl asked.

"I don't know," Rose said.

The two didn't speak for a while, until Rose said, "I found this with the books."

She held a piece of paper and gave it to Pearl. She took the paper and looked at it. The handwriting was legible, but it wasn't from anyone that she had recognized. It had a simple message, but no name.

"From an old friend."

…

 **And there be the end of the chapter. Sorry that it took so long. College has started and I was really busy with that. Along with Windows 10 not recognizing that I had a legitimate version of Office and brief spell of writer's block, I had some issues with getting this chapter done.**

 **But I did get it done, and while it may not be my best work, I do think that this chapter came out well. I felt that this was the right time to introduce Connie, and since in the series Steven meeting Connie was reliant on Steven seeing her at a parade with his dad, kind of made it a little more difficult to bring Connie into the story. So why not introduce bring them together by the power of The Spirit Morph Saga?**

 **So with that being said, now comes the issue of when the next chapter will be out. I will do my best to have it out by the eighteenth of this month by the latest. It may be out earlier, but it should be out by then. This is to account for any technical delays and any other issues that occur, so be on the lookout for the next chapter.**

 **So keep in mind a couple of questions. It should be pretty obvious on who called Steven's name, but who delivered the books? It may or may not be who you think, and I do like a little mystery. Also, as you may have noticed, last chapter had flashbacks focused on Amethyst while this one's flashbacks focused on Pearl, so whose flashbacks will be focused on next chapter?**

 **Not related to the story proper, but I did want to ask you guys a question. I want to incorporate a song into the story, because I think it would be fun to do so. What I wanted to ask is if that is something you guys wanted to see? I have an idea of what the first song will be, so if you want to see my impeccable songwriting skills (sarcasm is difficult to convey through text) then please leave a comment about it.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading, review if you like it!**

 **Peace.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

 **We Already Love You**

 _(Several Years Ago)_

 _It had only been a week after Steven's birth, and all of the Crystal Gems had no idea what to do now._

 _With Greg around, Rose was always radiating with joy. She would always start the day with a song, and if Greg was around he would play his guitar along with her._

 _Now, Rose would barely leave her room, only coming out when she needed to get food for Steven. The sounds of a crying Steven would fill the temple, with the only reprieve being when he had tired himself out or Rose had managed to calm him down._

 _Pearl had been reading up on how to take care of human babies, and would often be with Rose. Amethyst would run errands in town if Steven was being especially difficult._

 _Garnet would pop in now and again to help with Steven, but more often than not she would be the only one doing missions._

 _She was accustomed with doing missions by herself, but she had felt that she wasn't doing enough. She had wanted to help Rose and Steven, but this was the only way that she could do so._

 _The day started out like the others, Garnet being out of the temple before sunrise and look into the future, looking for something to do. Pearl was pacing the temple, a baby book in hand, and Amethyst nowhere in sight._

 _Pearl noticed Garnet and gave a small greeting before going back to the book. Pearl didn't need to tell Garnet where Amethyst was, doing so would be redundant since Garnet would already know where she was._

" _Pearl," Garnet said, breaking the silence._

" _Yes, Garnet?" Pearl said, looking up from her book once more._

" _Tell Rose I am going to the battlefield to take care of something, I could be a while," Garnet said, in her usual commanding tone._

 _Pearl said, "I'll tell her right now…just as soon as Amethyst comes back with the groceries."_

 _Garnet nodded and stood on the warp pad. She saw Amethyst coming towards the temple, bags in her hands, before she was transported to the battlefield._

 _There was nothing wrong with the battlefield, Garnet just liked being here when she wanted to think._

 _She wasn't the only one who liked to be here to think._

 _Sapphire enjoyed the calm atmosphere that the battlefield had, but Ruby often felt uneasy being in the battlefield. Memories of the war would often creep in her mind and Ruby would often feel like she heard the voices of her shattered comrades._

 _Once Garnet was far enough away from the warp pad, she took another look around to make sure that there wasn't another living soul around. Once she was positive that nothing would sneak up on her, a bright light shone, and where Garnet was standing were the two Gems that composed Garnet, Ruby and Sapphire._

 _Sapphire sat down, while Ruby began pacing._

" _Ruby," Sapphire began, but was interrupted by Ruby._

" _How are we going to deal with Steven?! We aren't capable of dealing with a kid!" Ruby exclaimed._

" _Everything will be fine Ruby," Sapphire said calmly._

" _That's easy for you to say! I mean, Rose has become so depressed that she barely leaves the temple, Pearl has attached herself to Rose's hip so she's not going anywhere, and Amethyst is all over the place!" Ruby said, "And we're the only ones who are doing missions, sooner or later we'll face something we can't handle and then what!?"_

" _Ruby, Rose needs to be with her son," Sapphire replied._

" _I know…I know…" Ruby said, now sitting next to Sapphire._

 _The two sat in silence as they watched the sun rise._

" _Remember the first day after we won?" Ruby said, breaking the silence._

" _Of course. The two of us sat here and reveled in the fact that Homeworld was gone. There weren't any missions that needed to be done and we sat here until the sun set over the horizon," Sapphire said, almost instantly. Ruby expected a quick response, since Sapphire carried the future vision ability._

" _You told Greg that Steven would be amazing. How he'll defy expectations. I saw it too, and it's hard to see something so small do what we saw," Ruby said, head lying in the palm of her right hand._

" _Well sometimes good things come in small packages," Sapphire said, leaning her head onto Ruby's shoulder._

 _Ruby gave a small chuckle and the two watched the sun rise._

 _Another silence._

" _Hey Sapphire?" Ruby said._

" _Hmm?" Sapphire replied._

" _We need to be there for him," Ruby said, "We all need to be there for him."_

 _Sapphire nodded while Ruby continued, "We could ask Rose if we could all take turns watching over Steven. It'll lighten the load for everyone."_

" _True," Sapphire replied._

" _Did you know that I was going to suggest it?" Ruby asked, genuinely curious._

" _It was a possibility," Sapphire said with small smile._

" _Well did you see this?" Ruby said, guiding her face to Sapphire's. The two's lips met and held for quite a while._

 _When they broke apart Sapphire said, "I like to be surprised sometimes."_

 _The two began to laugh as they stood up. They clasped each other's hands and began to dance. Another bright flash of light, and Garnet stood in place of Ruby and Sapphire._

 _A smile crept onto her face as she looked around again. Not a soul in sight._

(Present Day)

Connie did indeed come over the next day. She wasn't sure if Steven would remember that she was coming. In fact she thought that it was an elaborate prank that would culminate in Steven telling her that she was just a weirdo.

Luckily for Connie, Steven was waiting in front of his house. When he saw her, Steven quickly ran towards her.

Unknown to Connie, Steven woke up early and cleaned up the house, making sure that everything was ready for Connie to come over.

"Hi Connie!" Steven exclaimed, waving wildly.

Connie waved in return and said, "Hi Steven!"

When the two met in the middle, they stood around, unsure of what to do next.

"So, um…" Steven began awkwardly.

"What do you want to do first?" Connie said, her hand rubbing the back of her head nervously.

Steven was about to say something when the front door of the house opened. It was Amethyst holding a small box. She noticed the two and said, "Yo Steven, Connie!"

"Oh, hey Amethyst," Steven said, almost glad that Amethyst broke the awkward moment.

"Hey, could you two do a favor for me?" Amethyst asked.

Steven looked at Connie to see if it was ok with her, and she nodded. Steven said, "Sure, what do you need?"

"Well if you can take this box to V, that would make my life way easier," Amethyst said, holding the box in her hand.

"That's easy enough," Steven replied, taking the box in her hand.

"V?" Connie asked.

"Oh she's one of Amethyst's friends, Vidalia," Steven said.

"Yep. Now get going you two, I've got Gem stuff to do. Oh and Steven," Amethyst said.

"Yeah?" Steven replied.

"We've got a mission for you later today, so get ready for that, 'kay?" Amethyst said nonchalantly.

"I get to go on a mission with you guys!?" Steven exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, but that's way later kiddo," Amethyst said, "So you can hang out with Connie for a while and we'll call you when we are ready to go."

Steven smiled and nodded excitedly. He then realized that Connie was next to him, who was looking away with a slight look of embarrassment. Before Steven could say anything to Amethyst, she was already closing the front door.

Steven and Connie were alone again, and an awkward silence fell over them again.

"So I guess we should deliver this box then…" Steven said, trailing off.

Connie nodded and the two began to walk into town. It was still relatively early, so some of the stores were still opening up.

The two didn't say anything to each other until they arrived at a house that had two large curtains instead of a garage door.

The two walked through the curtains and were greeted with over a dozen paintings of Amethyst in various poses and shapes. Connie visibly stiffened, but Steven called out, "Hey Vidalia? It's me Steven. I brought a package from Amethyst!"

The door leading into the house and from it emerged a tall woman with a lot of blond hair. She looked at Steven and smiled, "Hey Steven, how's it going?"

"Pretty good. Oh this is my friend Connie," Steven said, introducing Connie, who held her hands together as she nervously looked at Vidalia.

"Well aren't you a pretty one? Don't you think so Steven?" Vidalia said with a smirk. Both Steven and Connie began turning red until Vidalia laughed and said, "I'm kidding!"

The two breathed a sigh of relief.

Connie looked around the garage and asked, "Did you paint all of these?"

"Yep. Amethyst and I go way back. She and I used to hang around Steven's dad," Vidalia said.

"Your dad?" Connie asked.

Steven didn't say anything else.

Vidalia felt the awkwardness set in and quickly changed the subject, "Hey Steven, you said you had a package for me?"

Steven felt relieved that Vidalia drove the conversation away from his father and handed her the box.

Vidalia opened it and began chuckling. It was a stack of photographs, all of them of Amethyst in various shapes and sizes.

"These will do great for the gallery!" Vidalia said.

"Gallery?" Steven asked.

"Yeah. Beach City is throwing some fancy schmancy art fest next month and they asked me to make a sort of mini gallery. I asked Amethyst if she could send me some pictures and well here they are," Vidalia replied.

Vidalia sighed as she looked at some old pictures hanging on the wall, "Man, time flies when you have kids."

Steven and Connie didn't know what to do and were about to leave when the mail truck had arrived. It was another blonde woman, shorter than Vidalia and holding a small stack of letters.

"Hey Barbara!" Vidalia greeted.

"Hey there Vidalia! Oh hello Steven!" the mail woman replied. She noticed Connie and asked, "My who's your friend Steven?"

"This is Connie," Steven said, Connie again looking nervous.

"Aren't they just the cutest?" Vidalia asked in a teasing tone.

"Oh they sure are," Barbara replied, again making Steven and Connie blush.

"I'll tell ya what isn't cute though, alimony checks," Barbara said, handing the letters to Vidalia, who immediately gave a look of disgust.

"Tell me about it," Vidalia responded.

The two continued to talk, which gave Steven and Connie the opportunity to leave. They said their good-byes and quickly left.

"So what do you want to do now?" Steven asked.

Connie shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know the town very well, so maybe we can take a look around?"

Steven nodded and led Connie to the boardwalk. The first stop was Beach Citywalk Fries, who at the moment was being tended by a young boy with curly blonde hair. He noticed the two coming up to the shop and said, "Hey Steven, who's your friend?"

"This is Connie. Connie, this is Peedee, his dad owns the place," Steven introduced.

"Wow, your father must really trust you with the shop," Connie said.

"Eh, it's not as great as you would think. My brother would be up here in front, but right now he's at some weird convention about plants or something," Peedee said, rolling his eyes at the mention of his brother. Peedee then said, "So how can I help you two?"

"Well, I'm showing Connie around town. Do you know any good places to show her?" Steven asked.

"Well there's the arcade, the Big Donut, the warehouse, and well…the car wash," Peedee said, pausing before he said the last suggestion.

"The car wash?" Connie asked.

"Yeah. Supposedly the car wash was abandoned because the owner died in a mysterious accident. Some say that his spirit haunts the place to this very day," Peedee said.

"That could be interesting. What do you say Steven?" Connie asked.

Steven replied, "If you want, sure."

The two waved good-bye to Peedee and began walking toward the car wash. As they approached the car wash, Steven took a look at the building.

It comprised of two buildings, one long one that was sealed by an aluminum garage door and a smaller one that had what looked like an office. The sign that used to be on the building was long gone, only to have long metal struts where it should have been.

The two stood some ways away and looked at the building. The air around them was cold and the wind came at the right time to give the kids chills.

"So, uh, were here," Steven said.

"Yeah," Connie replied, very anxious of being near the building.

The two stood there for a few minutes until Connie said, "I think we should go."

Steven nodded and the two turned around to walk back into town when a loud crash was heard. The two turned to the car wash and saw a broken window. In front of the shattered window was a dark lump that was shaking.

"Steven…" Connie whispered, frightened. The lump slowly began to sprout limbs, first one arm, then two legs and finally one long arm. The lump began standing up and Steven knew that had to get Connie out of there quickly.

"Connie, when I say run, we go for the temple, ok?" Steven whispered. Connie nodded and the two began to back away. The lump was now standing on its legs and began to lumber around, and when it left the shadows the two managed to get a better look at it.

It was almost completely dark blue in color, with the only exception being the creature's long arm. It was a pale yellow, which made the creature look unnerving. The creature wasn't approaching the two kids, but they figured that if they ran now, the creature shouldn't be able to catch up to them.

The two turned to run, but before Steven could yell "Run!" the creature was screeched and loud footsteps were heard.

Steven exclaimed, "CONNIE RUN!" and the two began running at a full sprint. The creature was faster than they thought and was quickly approaching the kids.

"What do we do?!" Connie screamed.

Steven looked around. The only place that was close by was the car wash, and while Steven knew that it wasn't the safest place, but it was the only place the two could hide.

Steven grabbed Connie's hand and led her to the car wash, and tried to open the door of the smaller building. It wouldn't budge.

Connie tried the door of the larger building, and to her surprise it opened easily. Connie pulled Steven inside and shut the door, locking it in the process.

The two gasped for breath, while the creature was trying to get in, to no avail.

"We're safe for now," Connie said, a hint of relief in her voice.

She looked at Steven, who was looking at the ground. Connie became concerned and asked, "Steven…?"

"I can't do anything right," Steven said. Connie replied, "Steven, it's not your fault. I wanted to come here and…"

"No it's just…I thought I could go through today without being near a monster. I wanted to spend the day with you. No monsters, no training, and no missions, but...I guess things didn't work out that way," Steven said.

Connie looked away for a moment, collected her thoughts and said, "Well, we can still hang out here."

Steven looked at Connie with a confused look. Connie continued, "I mean, we can make the best out of what we have right now."

Steven looked away again, and then he said, "Well, what do we do?"

Connie thought for a moment and said, "We can talk. You know, learn more about each other."

Steven gave a small smile and sat down, his back to the wall opposite of the door. Connie sat right next to him and said, "I'll go first. I don't actually live in Beach City."

"You don't?" Steven asked, shocked.

"Yeah. I live in a town a bus ride away," Connie replied.

"Well why do you come to Beach City?" Steven asked.

"It's pretty peaceful being near the beach. I can read there without being interrupted, I can look at the boats as they leave the harbor, and I can meet new people," Connie said, looking at Steven as she said the last statement.

Steven smiled wider and said, "Wow. Ok my turn, ummm…"

He thought for a while and the said, "Oh, I know how to play the ukulele."

"That's really cool! How did you learn how to play?" Connie replied.

"Well my mom said that when I was younger that I saw the ukulele and started messing around with it. It didn't take long until I taught myself how to play," Steven said, sighing as he remembered his first song.

"I know how to play the violin, but I had to take a class to learn. You didn't have a teacher?" Connie asked.

"Nope. My mom thinks that comes from my dad's side. He was a musician…" Steven said, trailing off.

"Oh…" Connie said, remembering that Steven's dad was a sore subject.

"I didn't even get a chance to meet him, but from what my mom and the Crystal Gems tell me, he was a great guy," Steven continued, "I just wish, I'd have met him."

Connie had no idea how to continue. She then realized something, "Steven?"

"Hmm?" Steven replied.

"The banging stopped," Connie said. At some point when the two were talking the monster stopped trying to get through the door.

The kids stood up and slowly approached the door, when they heard a loud creaking sound. They looked to the aluminum garage doors and saw them vibrating. The bottom of the door was slowly being lifted and the kids could see a blue hand and a pale yellow hand on the underside of the door.

"Steven, what do we do?!" Connie exclaimed.

Steven looked around, looking for something that could help. The only thing that he saw was an old garbage can. It wasn't big enough to fit both of them, but it could fit one of them.

"Connie, get in the can!" Steven whispered loudly. Connie was about to protest, but the garage door was now a foot from the ground, so she ran to the can. She crawled inside and Steven placed the lid on top of it.

'It doesn't matter what happens to me, just keep her safe!' Steven thought to himself. He stood in the middle of the garage and waited for the creature to open the door.

Slowly, but surely the door came open. The creature, now in full view, stood, holding the door up and began scanning the room. It looked directly at Steven and cocked its head.

Steven stared at the creature, waiting for it to attack. The creature slammed the door up until it locked open. The creature took a step towards Steven, who flinched but held his ground.

The creature slowly walked towards Steven and began to inspect him closely. It placed its hand on his head and began to screech.

Steven held still, ready to run, but then he heard a voice.

"Raawwwzz hrreeellltt mmrreeee" the creature screeched.

Steven was confused. Was this monster talking?

Before he could think more of it he heard a familiar voice yell "STEVEN!" and this caught the creature's attention. It was Garnet, gauntlets at the ready.

"Rawwwry. Raaaaafffffrree. Hreeeeellltt mrrreeeeee" the creature exclaimed as it charged at Garnet. She immediately punched the creature, and it poofed in a cloud of smoke almost instantly. The Gem that dropped was blue with a yellow streak in the middle, and Garnet instantly bubbled the Gem and sent it away.

Connie peeped out of the trash can and when she saw that the monster was gone, she started to get out. Steven went to help her get out, and after a few moments of struggling Connie was out of the can.

"Thanks Garnet," Connie said.

"Steven didn't show up for the mission, so we were all worried," Garnet replied in her monotone.

Steven gasped and said, "Oh man, I totally forgot! Sorry Garnet."

Garnet gave a small smile and said, "Don't worry Steven, you have an opportunity to come on a mission soon enough."

Steven gave a small smile and looked at Connie, "Sorry that today ended up like this. I guess it would be better if we didn't go too far from the temple."

"Yeah," Connie said with a small chuckle, "I still had a great time though, save for being in an old garbage can."

The two slowly began to laugh, and the three began walking to the temple. Steven was smiling on the outside, but on the inside he was puzzled.

The creatures shouldn't be able to talk. They are monsters after all. Yet he remembered the monster saying something. He didn't know what it was saying, but Steven knew that it was trying to say something.

It sounded like it was asking for help.

Steven's thoughts were interrupted when they reached the temple, Rose standing outside.

Steven waved and Rose said, "Steven! Is everything alright? We were all worried sick, we-"

"Steven was wandering town with Connie. They lost track of time," Garnet said.

"Ye…Yeah. Sorry Mom!" Steven replied. Connie looked confused, but she went along with it, "Sorry for keeping him from doing a mission."

Rose looked at Connie and replied, "Oh, you don't need to apologize. I'm just being a worried mom is all."

Rose ended her statement with a smile and a chuckle. The sound of a honking horn interrupted the moment. It was Connie's mother.

"I guess I have to go," Connie said, in a disappointed tone.

"Can you come back sometime soon?" Steven asked.

"I'll try," Connie said.

The two stood around, when suddenly Connie hugged Steven. Steven was shocked, but he returned the hug. Connie whispered, "Thanks for saving me again," before she broke the hug.

Connie ran to her mother, and Steven could barely hear Dr. Maheswaren ask why Connie smelled like decade old garbage. Rose stood next to Steven and said, "She is a really nice girl."

"Yeah. Yeah she is," Steven replied.

"Well, come on inside. You must be hungry after running around town. Garnet, are you coming inside?" Rose said.

"In a moment. I need to take care of some…personal business," Garnet said. Rose knew what this meant and led Steven back to the house.

Nearby the temple was a small alcove. No one would come here, so it was an ideal place for Garnet. She made sure that no one was around and in a flash of light, Ruby and Sapphire stood, looking at each other.

"We shouldn't have done that," Ruby said.

"We had no other choice. If Rose found out that Steven saw one of…them, she wouldn't know what to do," Sapphire replied. Ruby looked at Sapphire sternly and said, "So lying will make things better?"

"No. But it will be easier for Steven to learn about the war as slow as possible. If we inundate him with information, we can expect Steven to have a breakdown," Sapphire said, retaining a monotone.

"I hate that we have to lie to him," Ruby said, "He deserves to know!"

"We aren't the ones to make that call. In the end it's Rose's decision to tell Steven," Sapphire replied.

Ruby gave an exasperated sigh and looked outside. The sun was setting and the horizon became a darker orange.

 _(Several years ago)_

 _Garnet had returned to the temple sometime later. As she had expected, the others were not around. She heard Steven crying, so she knew that Rose was around._

 _Garnet walked inside Rose's room. The Crystal Gems would normally not be able to enter, but because of their current situation, it became a necessity for the other Crystal Gems to enter one another's rooms._

 _Garnet walked around, looking for Rose, when she saw her holding the crying baby._

" _Garnet," Rose said, in a very tired tone, "How did the mission go?"_

" _It went well. A minor disturbance that took longer than expected," Garnet replied._

" _That's good. Pearl and Amethyst went to get food for Steven, so it's just me and Steven," Rose said, looking at her son._

" _Rose…you need rest," Garnet said softly._

" _I'm fine Garnet. Really I am," Rose said, slightly annoyed now._

" _You haven't left your room in days, Pearl has been paranoid, and Amethyst has been running wild. I've been on multiple missions, and while not all of them have proven to be difficult, I know that there will come a Gem that I cannot handle alone," Garnet explained._

" _I can't leave Steven alone. What kind of mother would I be if I did that?" Rose replied in an exasperated tone._

" _Rose," Garnet said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "All of us are here to help you. We can take turns watching Steven. That way we all have a chance to do a mission and take care of Steven."_

" _I-I-I…" Rose stammered. She finally sighed and said, "I think your right."_

 _She took a breath and said, "I can't raise him alone. I thought I could do it."_

" _Rose. We've stood by your side for centuries. We've fought against our own kind and more. It's the least we could do," Garnet said. She continued, "Steven won't be like us. There is a large possibility that he won't have any powers, so we all need to be there for him. To protect him from everything that may come our way."_

" _Garnet," Rose began, "I don't want him to fight. We can't tell him anything about the war. If he's anything like his father he'll…"_

 _She trailed off, but Garnet knew what she meant._

" _We won't tell him about the war. You have the responsibility to tell him when you see appropriate. Hopefully he won't need to know," Garnet said, holding her arms out._

 _Rose was apprehensive at first, but slowly handed Steven to Garnet. Steven became much quieter when he felt the sensation of being held in new arms._

" _Get your rest Rose. I'll take first watch," Garnet said, slowly turning to leave._

" _Garnet," Rose said._

" _Hmm," Garnet replied._

" _How are Ruby and Sapphire handling it?" Rose asked._

 _Garnet chuckled as she took off her visor, revealing her three eyes, glassy with tears "Don't worry Rose. We already love him."_

...

 **And that ends this chapter. Sorry that this one is a bit late, but going to school, trying to have a social life, and trying to do a video series have taken up a lot of my time. I'm still going to write, but setting hard deadlines probably isn't a good idea for me. So instead I'll say a new chapter will be out within two or three weeks.**

 **So yeah, still no reveal on who gave Steven the books, but I did leave a couple of clues in this chapter. I also kinda wrote myself into a corner last chapter by saying that Steven and Connie would hang out and Steven would be going on a mission at the same time, so I had to find a way to make some compromise. That's why the ending was a bit more open ended as to how it's going to go next chapter.**

 **I have also noticed that I have made a lot of dark or semi-dark chapters, so the next one will be a lighter one. Plus I still want to put a song in at some point, and I couldn't find a way to do it this chapter. What I did find a way to do is introduce Ruby and Sapphire. Didn't see that one coming did you? I'll admit that it may be a bit spoiler-y if you haven't seen the series, but it's far enough into the series that if you don't know about Ruby and Sapphire already, then you are reading the wrong story.**

 **I also introduced some odd monster. Could it be because I was inspired to do so because of Nightmare Hospital? Yes I was. I also think that you guys are smart enough to figure out what the monster was trying to say to Steven. How could he understand it though? Any ideas? Theories?**

 **This still isn't my best work, but I could just be overly judgmental on my own work.**

 **Thank you for reading, review if you like it!**

 **Peace.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

 **Not Like Anybody**

 _(Several Years Ago)_

 _There was a knock on the door of the finished beach house. It had only been around for a few months, but everyone in town had known about it, and knew the inhabitants._

 _A tall woman with short blonde hair stood in front of the door holding some flyers. She was the only one who was brave enough to deliver mail here, and she couldn't blame the others for being cowards._

 _There wasn't an "official" address, the inhabitants didn't think it was necessary to do so since they have been around before Beach City has been around. At least that's what they say, and quite frankly the town was willing to believe them since they kept things safe._

 _Barbara waited for longer than usual when the tall pink haired owner of the house, Rose, answered the door, holding her young sleeping son, Steven._

" _Hello Barbara, how can I help you?" Rose asked, her voice quiet enough to make sure Steven was asleep._

" _I'm just here to deliver some flyers. Mr. Smiley is doing an event called Beach a Palooza," Barbara whispered, handing a flyer to Rose. She looked over the flyer, "BEACH A PALOOZA! BIGGEST PARTY OF THE YEAR!"_

 _Rose gave a small smile and said, "Thank you, I'll tell the others about, and maybe we'll take Steven if he's up for it."_

 _At the sound of his name Steven opened his eyes and looked at his mother. He gave a small smile and Rose returned the smile tenfold. Barbara knew better than to interrupt, so she silently waved and left. Once Barbara was out of view, Rose walked inside, holding the flyer._

" _Who was at the door?" a familiar voice called._

 _Rose looked up and saw Pearl standing in front of the warp pad, ready to leave for a mission._

" _Oh, it was Barbara. She was delivering flyers for a festival that is happening soon," Rose said, showing the flyer to Pearl. As Pearl grabbed the flyer, Rose set Steven down on his bed. He would normally take naps around this time of day, so Rose did her best to keep him well rested._

" _I was thinking about taking Steven to the festival," Rose said, "He should see the townspeople at the very least."_

" _I don't know how well he would handle the loud noise. Remember when that fair was in town?" Pearl replied._

" _Well that had loud machinery…and a monster attacked, so it made sense for Steven to not be comfortable. I think this is just to showcase the people of town being who they are," Rose said, walking down the stairs._

 _Pearl continued to look through the flyer, noticing some small print, "Oh, it seems as if they are recruiting performers."_

" _Well they would have to, otherwise it would be a lackluster festival," Rose replied, lost in thought. Rose hadn't left the temple with Steven in quite some time. Some change in scenery would be nice._

(Present Day)

Steven was walking around town passing out flyers for the upcoming Beach a Palooza. Steven was extremely excited because it was the one event of the year that showcased the talents of the citizens of Beach City.

Steven didn't have an act this year. He had been training so much these past few weeks that he didn't have time to plan one.

Mr. Smiley knew that Steven would have liked to perform, so he gave Steven the title "Assistant Showrunner", which meant that Steven would still be involved with Beach a Palooza, but didn't have the stresses of trying to come up with an act last minute.

Steven posted the flyers on any open wall that didn't have a flyer on it already and it wasn't long until he ran out of flyers. He began to run to where the stage was being set up to pick up some more flyers when he noticed Mayor Dewey walking to the stage.

Steven called out, "Hi Mayor Dewey!"

Mayor Dewey turned around and gave an exaggerated wide smile. He said, "Ah Steven, what a pleasant surprise! I thought you didn't have an act this year!"

"I don't, I'm helping Mr. Smiley advertise. I am an Assistant Showrunner!" Steven said proudly.

"I see. Well that makes this easier, can you give this to Mr. Smiley?" Mayor Dewey said, holding out an envelope. Steven grabbed and said, "Sure thing."

Mayor Dewey gave a quick smile and walked away. Steven began looking for Mr. Smiley and found him talking to one of the people setting up the stage.

"Make sure that it's red, blue, red, blue and not blue, red, blue, red!" Mr. Smiley said, hands on his hips. He noticed Steven walking towards him and said, "Steven! Ran out of flyers already?"

"Yeah, oh and Mayor Dewey wanted you to have this," Steven replied, giving Mr. Smiley the letter. He looked confused, but took the letter and opened it. His eyes scanned through the page, and his smile slowly faltered.

After finishing the letter he said, "Steven, I have to go."

Steven was shocked, "What happened?"

"My momma…isn't doing too well," Mr. Smiley said, careful about his words, "I've got to go to Keystone to help her."

"Is she going to be ok?" Steven asked, concern apparent in his voice.

Mr. Smiley replied, "She'll be much better when I get there."

Steven gave a small smile, "Well you go ahead, I'll take care of Beach a Palooza!"

"It's not gonna be easy Steven. You sure you can handle it?" Mr. Smiley asked.

"Absolutely!" Steven said confidently.

Mr. Smiley rubbed the back of his neck and then said, "Well I need to make sure it's ok with your mom first. You know, legal stuff."

Steven nodded, grabbed Mr. Smiley's and led him to the beach house. Amethyst was outside eating a sandwich when she noticed the two walking to the house.

"Hey Amethyst! Do you know where my mom is? I need to ask her something," Steven said.

"She's on a mission right now, sorry bud," Amethyst said in between bites of her sandwich.

Steven groaned when the door opened. As if by pure coincidence Rose walked outside, with a bubbled Gem in her hand. She was surprised to see Mr. Smiley and said, "Harold, what a surprise! How can I help you?"

Mr. Smiley looked at Steven and back to Rose and said, "Can I talk to you about something…in private?"

Rose looked somewhat concerned. She had the bubble disappear and opened the door, inviting Mr. Smiley in.

Mr. Smiley walked slowly and once he went inside, Steven could hear the two voices talking briefly. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he figured that they were talking about Beach a Palooza.

Steven sat at the base of the steps and waited for the two to come out. Amethyst walked down the steps and sat right next to Steven.

"So what's up with Smiley?" Amethyst asked, still eating her sandwich.

"Oh, his mom is sick and he needs someone to run Beach a Palooza," Steven replied.

"So he's asking Rose to run Beach a Palooza?" Amethyst asked, finishing the last bite of the sandwich.

"No! He's asking if I could run Beach a Palooza!" Steven exclaimed.

Amethyst looked at him for a brief moment and before she could say something in reply, the door to the house opened.

Mr. Smiley and Rose both walked out, Mr. Smiley a little happier, and he said, "Well Steven, looks like you can run the show after all."

Steven jumped in the air, shouting with joy.

"Now Steven, it isn't gonna be easy, so I'll walk you through everything," Mr. Smiley said, leading Steven back to the stage.

Steven followed Mr. Smiley, waving goodbye to Rose and Amethyst as he began to listen to every word he said about running the show.

Amethyst looked at Rose and asked, "So what's up with Smiley's mom?"

Rose's face became a small frown and she replied, "She is…not well."

Amethyst looked confused, "You mean, like, sick?"

Rose nodded, "Very sick."

"Well, can't you just go over and heal her?" Amethyst asked.

"I offered, but Harold said that while he appreciates the offer…" Rose paused, "He doesn't think his mother would approve."

"Humans are so weird sometimes," Amethyst sighed.

"True…but that's what makes them human," Rose replied, a soft smile on her face.

…

Steven walked around backstage with a clipboard that Mr. Smiley had given him. On it was a checklist of things that needed to be done.

Most of the stage was built and the people who were going to perform already went through a rehearsal. The only things that were left to be done was to make sure that the show went as smoothly as possible.

Steven walked on the familiar stage and looked around, checking to make sure that everything was in its proper place.

"Steven!"

A familiar voice called out his name. He looked around and saw Kiki Pizza walking towards him.

"Oh, hey Kiki!" Steven greeted.

Kiki was holding a flyer and said, "I've got bad news Steven."

"What happened?" Steven asked, very concerned.

"My Dad has me and Jenny working late tomorrow night so we can't do our act." Kiki said, very disappointed.

"What! But the Pizza Family Theater was the final act!" Steven exclaimed.

"I know, and we are really, really sorry," Kiki replied.

"Can't you convince Kofi to change his mind?" Steven asked.

"You know how my Dad is about work stuff," Kiki said.

Steven knew all too well. When Steven was younger he remembered the one time the Pizza's had looked after him. Kofi put him to work, and Steven smelled like fish for a week.

Kiki apologized once again, leaving to get back to work. Steven had a finger on his chin and thought of different solutions.

"Who can I get to be the final act of the show?" Steven said out loud. Before he could say anything he heard another familiar voice call.

"Steven!"

He turned to see that it was his mother, holding a sack lunch.

"Hey Mom," Steven said, walking to his mother.

Rose handed him the lunch, but when he didn't begin to eat the lunch she asked, "Is something wrong, Steven?"

"Kiki and Jenny can't perform tomorrow. They have work that night so we don't have a final act anymore," Steven said, slowly opening the sack lunch. He pulled out a cookie in the shape of a star and began to slowly eat it.

"Well what if you extended the act before Kiki's and Jenny's?" Rose asked.

"I don't think Jamie can go longer than his allotted time. He's doing a dramatic reading of a poem that he wrote," Steven explained.

Rose looked around to see if anyone was around. She knelt next to Steven and whispered, "How about I perform?"

Steven stopped eating his cookie and gasped, "You want to be the final act!?"

Rose shushed him, "I want it to be a surprise,"

Steven shut his mouth, but it could only stay shut for so long when he smiled the widest smile he possibly could. He hugged his mother really tight and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!"

Rose returned the embrace and said, "Anything for you."

Steven let go of the embrace and ran off to talk to one of the stage hands about a change in plans. Rose saw her son run around with an excited look that she hasn't seen for quite a while.

Rose walked away, waving good bye to Steven, and heading towards the temple. She saw Garnet walking towards the beach and said, "Good afternoon Garnet."

"Afternoon Rose," Garnet replied, stopping to look at her leader, "I would go with the third song, personally."

Rose smiled and nodded and began to hum the tune as she continued to walk to the house. Garnet gave a small smile in return and continued to walk to the beach. She saw the stage being set and looked back at the temple. Pearl was walking out, as Garnet predicted, and began to run hurriedly to Garnet.

"Garnet!" Pearl exclaimed, "Rose is going to perform tomorrow! We need to rehearse, set up a routine, and…"

Garnet held up her hand and said, "Rose is going to perform solo."

Pearl looked flabbergasted, "What?! What is she going to sing?"

Garnet replied, "She is going to sing his song,"

…

The day passed quickly and Steven came home late, tired as ever. Even though he had been training the past several weeks, running a festival was much harder than he thought.

On the bright side, Steven had managed to get everything set up for the show tomorrow.

"Let's see, first is Sour Cream with an opener, then Ronaldo's dis-disser-dissertation on how Sneeple are everywhere, Buck Dewey's sitting or something, Jamie doing his reading, and finally Mom with…"

Steven realized that he had no idea what Rose was going to do for Beach a Palooza. He looked around to see if she was around, but it was late so he figured that she would be in her room.

The house was often quiet at night, with very little activity, besides Amethyst getting the occasional midnight snack.

Steven walked to the temple door and placed his ear on the door. He did this every once in a while to see if he could hear anything on the other side.

A lot of times all he heard was silence.

Tonight was different.

It was faint, but he could hear something on the other side.

'Piano?' Steven thought to himself. He didn't know any of the Crystal Gems who could play the piano. Pearl would occasionally play the violin and Amethyst would bang on the drums.

Garnet played the keytar, but it sounded like a regular piano to him. It was a soft, slow melody that Steven didn't recognize, but it was soothing.

He turned to walk away and was stopped when he heard a voice. It was muffled by the door, but Steven could still recognize who it was.

"Mom?" Steven said to himself. He knew that his mother could sing, in fact he knew her to be an amazing singer, but he had never heard her play the piano.

He walked back to the door and rested his head on it, trying to see if he could hear what she was singing.

Steven tried to place the song, but the melody didn't match anything that he had heard before. He couldn't tell what the lyrics were either, but the door made everything sound muffled.

He sighed and walked back to his bed, his mother slowly becoming quieter the farther he went.

When he reached his bed the only thing could be heard was the piano, and even that was barely audible. He tried to listen to the song for as long as he could, but eventually the house became silent.

The familiar sound of silence echoed through the house.

…

Steven was up early.

In fact much earlier than usual.

He took his clipboard and ran through the list over and over again. Mr. Smiley told him that the best hosts knows the routine forwards and backwards, so Steven was doing exactly that.

He made sure that every routine, every part of the schedule was committed to his memory. From who was performing, to the jokes he was going to use to introduce the next act, to even knowing exactly what the performance was going to entail.

The only problem he had was with his mother's performance.

He still had no idea exactly what his mother was going to do. Were the other Crystal Gems going to perform? Did she need a light show? What was she going to sing?

The door to the temple opened and Rose walked out, looking around. When she saw Steven, she beamed and walked towards him.

"Good morning Steven, you're up early," Rose said cheerfully.

Steven replied, "Well I just wanted to go over the show. You know, make sure I know everything."

"That's a smart thing to do," Rose said.

Steven looked to the clipboard and asked, "So what's your routine going to be Mom?"

"I'll be singing a song," Rose said simply.

"What song are you going to sing?" Steven asked.

Rose paused for a moment and then said, "A song that your father wrote for me."

Steven looked up from the clipboard back at his mother. He saw that Rose's eyes were becoming glassy, as if she wanted to cry, but didn't want to do it at the same time.

All Steven could say was, "O-oh…"

An awkward silence washed over the both of them.

"So…do you need anything for it?" Steven asked, breaking the silence.

"Just a piano and a spotlight," Rose said, sounding somewhat relieved.

Steven nodded and gave his mother a hug.

Steven loved hugging his mother. Somehow hugging her would make him feel as if everything was right in the world.

He had no problems and everything was going to be ok when he was hugging her.

This hug was no exception, but there was something not quite right about it. Rose returned the hug as expected, but it was much tighter than usual. It wasn't uncomfortable, but Steven did notice it.

Once the embrace was broken Rose said, "Well I need to take care of a few thing before tonight."

"Ok," Steven replied, returning to his clipboard to write down what his mother was going to do.

As Rose walked to the warp pad she called out, "Steven?"

Steven looked up from the clipboard, "Hmm?"

"I love you Steven," Rose said, a small smile on her face.

Steven returned the smile and said, "I love you too Mom."

Once Steven had replied, Rose warped away. Steven kept his eyes on the warp pad before he continued writing on the clipboard.

After a few minutes of coming up with a line to introduce his mother, he walked outside to go check on the stage.

It was still early so no one was at the stage yet. He looked at the lights and made sure that they were correctly positioned when he heard footsteps and music approaching.

He turned around and saw Sour Cream, rolling a large suitcase of some sort and wearing large orange headphones.

"Hey Sour Cream!" Steven said loudly. Sour Cream looked up, removed his headphones and replied, "Hey Steven."

"Are you ready for the show?" Steven asked. Sour Cream nodded and said, "Yeah man, just need to set up my gear and do some calibrations before I start the set."

Steven smiled and looked down at his clipboard. He checked the box that said "S.C. Prep".

"This is gonna be the best Beach a Palooza yet!" Steven exclaimed. Sour Cream said, "Keep those good vibes Steven."

Sour Cream walked on stage and opened his suitcase and asked, "Do you have a table around?"

Steven jumped off stage and went to the back to look for a table, when he heard a strange noise.

It sounded like…humming?

It was a low hum. A constant note, but not one that Steven was familiar with. He looked around and tried to place the sound, but there was no one else besides him and Sour Cream. Steven remembered that he was doing something, grabbed a nearby table and began walking back to Sour Cream.

The humming was constant and slowly became louder. Sour Cream was taking the last of his gear out when he noticed Steven.

"Hey Steven, you don't look too great. Are you ok man?" Sour Cream asked.

"Y-y-yeah I…I must be tired from all the Beach a Palooza planning," Steven managed to say, breath becoming ragged and sweat beginning to form.

Sour Cream became visibly worried, took the table and said, "Look Steven, it's cool if you're not up for this. You've been working super hard, so it's fine if you wanna take a break."

Steven was about to protest, but suddenly his vision slowly began to fade. He couldn't form any words and before he knew it, everything became black. He could hear Sour Cream exclaim something, but to him it was just muffled noise.

 _ **Steven opened his eyes to see that it was he was on the Beach a Palooza stage. Only there was something off about the whole thing. It was not early morning, but rather early dusk.**_

 _ **He saw dozens of chairs lined up facing the stage, but no one was occupying them. The corner of his eye caught familiar pink curls, so he turned around.**_

 _ **He saw his mother standing alone at a table, holding something.**_

 _ **He heard her say, "Space Train to the Cosmos?"**_

 _ **Steven confused and after a moment she laughed and said, "How will you get back?" A short pause, "Back to Earth?"**_

 _ **Steven had the urge to say something, but before he could he heard a loud crashing sound behind him. He turned to see what made the noise, only to see nothing. He turned back to see his mother, only to find that everything was deserted.**_

 _ **The stage he was standing on disappeared along with the chairs and the table.**_

 _ **Steven was standing on the beach.**_

 _ **Alone.**_

 _ **He yelled, "Hello?!"**_

 _ **No answer.**_

 _ **He tried again, "HELLO!?"**_

 _ **Nothing.**_

 _ **He was going to try for a third time when he heard a voice.**_

" _ **Steven,"**_

 _ **It was a familiar voice, but Steven couldn't place it.**_

" _ **Steven,"**_

 _ **He looked around to see who was calling his name.**_

"STEVEN!?" A loud voice cried, snapping Steven's eyes wide open. The sun was slowly rising and he was surrounded by several people.

Sour Cream, who looked out of breath, Sadie, Lars, and Nanefua Pizza, who was holding Steven's head in one hand and an orange and blue fish in the other.

Steven slowly sat up and asked, "W-what happened?"

"You…passed out man…I ran looking for help," Sour Cream said between breaths.

"Lars and I were getting ready for the day when Sour Cream ran in. We all ran to Nanefua after that," Sadie said.

"The best smelling salt in the entire world is the Tomacco Blue Striped Fish. I always have one handy," Nanefua said, gesturing to the fish she was holding.

Steven asked, "How long was I out?"

"About fifteen minutes, tops," Sour Cream said, now more composed.

Steven sighed and looked around for his clipboard. He made a motion to grab it when Sadie stopped him.

Steven looked confused.

"Steven, you need to take a break. It doesn't have to be long, just like an hour or something," Sadie began, "You're overworked, and you can't risk fainting during the show, right?"

Steven knew that she was right. He grabbed the clipboard and held it to Sour Cream, "Can you make sure that things go alright until I come back?"

Sour Cream nodded as he took the clipboard. Steven looked at the others and said, "I could use the rest."

Sadie and Nanefua nodded, and Lars remained relatively neutral. They all left to their respective businesses, and Sour Cream went back to set up.

Steven began walking to the temple, when he saw Garnet leaning on the cliff. She saw Steven walking toward him and she said, "Good morning Steven."

"Morning Garnet," Steven said, trying to keep a small smile, which Garnet returned.

"Hey Garnet?" Steven began, Garnet tilted her head in a questioning manner, "How…how did my Mom meet my Dad?"

Garnet maintain her stoic look, but visibly stiffened, "You should really ask your mother about that."

Steven replied, "I don't know if she'll tell me. Whenever I talk about Dad, Mom looks uncomfortable."

Garnet sighed and said, "Your mother met your father when she went to go to a concert on the beach. She was the only one who went, your father wanted to give her a shirt, and he managed to get to the temple, where we all met him."

Steven was silent for a while. He then asked, "What was he like?"

Garnet chuckled.

"He was a man with ambitious dreams of becoming a world famous musician. He gave up everything to be with your mother. The things that he did to make sure that you came to be could only be rivaled by what your mother was willing to do."

Steven sat down next to Garnet. Garnet sat down as well and Steven said, "If he could…do you think he would want to be here with me and Mom?"

Without any hesitation Garnet replied, "Without a doubt."

The two sat together in silence as they saw the sun rise. It had been much longer than Steven originally intended, but Steven didn't mind and neither did Garnet.

Steven stood up, brushed himself off and said, "Well I'm gonna go back to check on how things are going."

Garnet nodded as she saw Steven walking towards the stage. The sound of the warp pad signaled Rose's return. Garnet stood up and walked inside to see Rose walking to the temple door. The sound of the door closing alerted Rose and she turned around and said, "Oh, hello Garnet!"

"Hello Rose," Garnet replied.

"Have you been keeping an eye on Steven?" Rose asked.

"Of course," Garnet said.

"Did anything happen?" Rose asked as nonchalantly as she could.

"He fainted," Garnet said bluntly. Rose looked surprised and immediately asked, "Is he alright? Is he hurt? Do we have to cancel the show? Do we have to take him the fountain?"

"Yes, no, no, and no," Garnet replied, "He was only out for fourteen minutes. He was told to take a break and he did. He and I sat together for an hour and a half before he went back to work. Provided he takes his time and doesn't try to rush things, he will be fine."

Rose sighed in relief. Garnet continued, "Rose, he asked about Greg."

Rose stiffened as she looked at Garnet, "W-what?"

"Steven wanted to know how you and Greg met," Garnet said, "I told him that he should ask you, but he thought that you wouldn't be comfortable talking about him."

"I didn't…" Rose said, tears now beginning to form. Garnet slowly approached Rose when she looked up and grabbed Garnet in an embrace.

Garnet returned the embrace. Garnet said, "Rose…you need to talk to him. You need to be there for your son."

"I know," Rose said, tears freely falling.

…

The sun was beginning to set, marking the beginning of Beach a Palooza. Steven was wearing a suit jacket over his shirt and was going through his clipboard one last time behind the stage.

Sadie, who volunteered to be a stage hand, walked to Steven and said, "Steven, the show starts in two minutes, how are you feeling?"

Steven took a deep breath and nodded. Sadie had a look of doubt, but said, "If you say so."

Sadie walked away, and Steven set his clipboard on the table that held the water bottles. After glancing at the clipboard one last time, he began walking to the stage.

He waited for Sour Cream to start the first song, which began with a deep pulsating bass pulse. After eight pulses Steven walked on stage, right when the lights and the actual music started.

"Good evening Beach City!" Steven exclaimed into the microphone, "Welcome to Beach a Palooza, the biggest party of the year!"

The crowd began to applaud, Steven continued, "Let's get this party started right with Sour Cream!"

On cue, Sour Cream turned up the music and the song began to escalate. Once the light show began, Steven left the stage to get ready for the next act.

Steven knew that Sour Cream's set would be ten minutes and Ronaldo would be up right after. He looked around and saw Ronaldo going through some papers next to a chalkboard.

"Hey Ronaldo," Steven called.

Ronaldo looked up from his papers and gave a small wave, only to get back to his papers. Steven knew that this was normal for Ronaldo, so he looked around to see that Buck Dewey and Jamie were talking to each other.

The only one who wasn't around was his mother.

He peeked to the audience to see if she was on her way. He couldn't spot any signs of her, nor the other Crystal Gems.

…

"I beseech thee my lost love, for in the eyes of the grandest phoenix, thou art the only one to be still my heart," Jamie said, affecting his voice so much that he didn't need a microphone.

Steven was slowly becoming worried. Everything was going as planned, and it was nearing the finale. Jamie's dramatic reading was going to be about four more minutes, and Steven knew that it would take three minutes to set up the piano, so his mother had about seven minutes until she was set to perform.

He looked around, trying his hardest to see if Rose was coming by, terrified if the mission that she was on was taking much longer than usual.

His breathing became shallower as Jamie prattled on about love when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see his mother, with a sheepish smile.

"Mom!" Steven silently exclaimed, hugging her instantly.

Rose replied, "I am so sorry for taking so long. The mission went a little long, and then another thing came up. But I am here, ready to perform."

"Ok, when Jamie is done and we set up the piano, you'll be able to perform," Steven said as he was getting ready to tell the stage hands to get ready to set up the piano.

"Steven," Rose said, stopping her son in his tracks, "Will you help me with the song?"

Steven replied, "But…but I don't know the song you're going to sing!"

Rose gave a small smile and handed him several sheets of paper.

Music sheets.

"I had Pearl write the sheets last night," Rose said.

"But, I'm not that great on the piano," Steven said.

Rose knelt down, getting eye level with her son and said "I know you can do this, Steven. It isn't much and I made sure that Pearl made it simple enough for anyone to read."

Steven looked at the music sheets again. He noticed that Pearl wrote down the keys that needed to be pressed and when.

Steven took a deep breath and said, "I'll do it!"

Rose smiled. Before they could say anything else they heard applause, signaling the end of Jamie's performance. Steven looked to his mother and said, "I need to introduce us."

Rose nodded and let her son go.

Steven gave the music sheets to Sadie, saying to make sure that the sheets go with the piano. Steven walked on stage and began his introduction.

"Well that was a great performance Jamie! We need to set up for our final act, so stand tight everyone!"

As if on cue, the stage hands began moving the piano on stage, Sadie closely following with the music sheets. Once the piano was set, Steven grabbed a seat and sat down in front of the piano. Steven motioned for the lights to go out and for Rose to come on stage.

Once the lights dropped and Rose was center stage with a microphone in her hand, Steven played the first couple of chords and said into a microphone.

"Ladies and gentleman, ending our show is the one, the only, Rose Universe,"

He slowly began playing the piano as the spotlight shone on his mother. After playing a few chords, Rose lifted the microphone and began to sing.

 _(Several Years Ago)_

 _Rose was walking back to the house, Steven sleeping in her arms. The two had spent the evening at Beach a Palooza, and Steven had the time of his life._

 _He spent his time talking with as many people as possible, introducing himself to people he didn't know and telling them how excited he was._

 _When the first performance went on stage, he was instantly enthralled. As each performance went on Steven became more and more entranced with everyone on stage._

 _Once the show had ended, Steven fell asleep, extremely tired with all the excitement. Rose smiled as she picked up her son to get him to bed._

 _Rose slowly opened the door to the house and managed to set Steven to sleep without as much as a peep. Steven slept soundly and Rose sat around, watching her son sleep._

 _Gems didn't need to sleep, but she found it fascinating when she saw humans sleep. They looked so innocent and relaxed, it made her wonder how they could look so peaceful when there are so many dangers in the world._

 _Gem dangers aside, there was human on human violence, sickness, natural disasters, and dozens of other things. Yet they can manage to close their eyes and let their troubles melt away._

 _She looked at her sleeping son, watching his chest slowly rise and fall. Rose gave a small sigh and began to hum._

 _She would often hum to help Steven sleep, or to just calm herself down. There was always a particular song that she would hum._

 _It was the last song that Greg had ever made for her. It was before he volunteered to sacrifice his physical form. It was meant to be a duet between the two of them, but they never got around to performing it._

 _It was the first piano song that Greg had made, and he even made a demo for it. Rose would play the tape every night until it was accidentally destroyed when building the house._

 _It wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a series of coincidences that crushed the tape. Since then Rose would hum the tune, which to her was just as good. She wouldn't sing the song, because it would have been too much for her._

 _When she finished humming the song, she looked back to her son. He was still fast asleep, but he had a smile on his face._

 _His smile made her smile. Steven had an infectious smile, just like his father. Rose's only wish was that his father was still around to be with him. Greg would have loved to be with his son, and Rose would have loved to be with them._

 _She would never regret anything that she did._

 _She never regretted the fact that she had abandoned her own kind. She never regretted keeping Amethyst, whose sole purpose was to fight, because she knew that Amethyst was much more than just a soldier. She had never regretted giving Pearl her own freedom, because she knew that Pearl could do amazing things, things that no other Gem could do. She never regretted Ruby and Sapphire permanently becoming Garnet, because she knew that their love for each other was much stronger than any Gem on Homeworld could ever imagine._

 _She had never regretted falling in love with Greg, because Greg made her realize what being in love meant. She never regretted giving birth to Steven, because she knew that one day he would become something more than she or Greg could ever imagine._

 _Her only regret was that she wished she could have Greg experience being a father. That they could all be together._

 _Be a real family._

 _Tears slowly began to pour from her eyes._

 _She made no attempt to stop it._

 _That's when she finally broke her own rule._

 _She began to sing his song._

" _ **If I could, begin to be,**_

 _ **Half of what you think of me.**_

 _ **I could do about anything,**_

 _ **I could even learn how to love.**_

 _ **When I see, the way you act,**_

 _ **Wondering when I'm coming back,**_

 _ **I could do about anything,**_

 _ **I could even learn how to love**_

 _ **Like you.**_

 _ **If I could, just stay with you,**_

 _ **Then you'll know my love is true,**_

 _ **I will do about everything,**_

 _ **So you know that I learned to love,**_

 _ **Like you."**_

(Present Day)

Rose finished the song, tears slowly trickling down her face. Steven had finished playing the piano, tears forming in his eyes as well.

He looked to see the audience, families, friends, and complete strangers all closer together. Some were crying, but all were smiling. A slow applause grew into a cacophony of cheers, laughter and clapping.

Steven stepped away from the piano and walked to his mother.

He grabbed his mother's hand. Rose looked to her son and smiled and Steven smiled in return.

He always thought his mother had an infectious smile, so it was hard not to. They both faced the crowd and gave a bow, which garnered more applause.

…

It had been almost an hour after the performance, but the stage had nearly finished being dismantled.

Rose had offered to help, but Steven said that he could handle it. Rose was hesitant, but she let Steven help out in taking down the stage.

Whatever stage hands were around also helped, but slowly they began to whittle down to only Steven and Sadie.

The only thing that was left to do was to take the lights back to Mr. Smiley's house. He didn't live too far from where the stage was set up, and since there was a cart to carry the lights, Steven volunteered to take them.

Sadie didn't want to leave Steven alone, but he insisted that he would be fine. She relented and let Steven walk to Mr. Smiley's house.

Steven's body ached from all the hard work, but he knew that it would all be done soon. He walked on the quiet boardwalk, cart in tow and as he approached the house, he heard a motorcycle rev nearby.

Steven turned around to see a familiar figure drive up to the house.

"Hi Mr. Smiley!" Steven said.

Mr. Smiley parked his motorcycle and replied, "Hey Steven! I heard about how the show went from Barb! Sounds like you did an amazing job!"

Steven nodded, "Yeah, and I managed to perform after all!"

Mr. Smiley laughed as he took the cart of stage lights into his slowly opening garage.

"Well, what can I say, besides you did me a great favor by running things, and it all went better than expected!" Mr. Smiley loudly declared.

"Oh, that reminds me, how is your mom doing?" Steven asked sincerely. While Mr. Smiley was expecting the question, but still hesitated to answer.

"She…is doing a lot better. It was a tough fight, but she managed to get to a better place," Mr. Smiley said, struggling to keep a smile.

Steven was relieved to hear the news, but felt like something was off. He said, "Well, I think she got a lot better because she got to see you."

Mr. Smiley replied, "Yeah…she was a lot happier to see me. It has been twenty years since I last saw her."

Steven gasped, "Why so long?"

Mr. Smiley visibly stiffened, but answered, "She and I…got into a big fight. I ran away from home and haven't talk to her since."

Steven didn't know what to say.

"Steven," Mr. Smiley began, "Love your mother. There may be some days when it seems like she is a million miles away and it's like you can't say anything to her. But remember, she will always be there for you. If you can't talk to your mother about what's on your mind, then who can you talk to?"

Steven absorbed this information and looked down.

He had always felt like his mother was distanced from him, mostly because she was off doing a mission or important Gem business.

He knew that she loved him, but they rarely had time to talk to each other, Steven just got used to the fact that his mother wasn't around.

Steven looked up at Mr. Smiley and said, "Thanks for letting me run Beach a Palooza, Mr. Smiley…and for the advice."

Mr. Smiley gave a large smile and replied, "Always here to help Steven. Now run on home before your mom gets worried."

Steven nodded and began running home.

Mr. Smiley smiled, looked to the sky, sighed and said, "He's a good kid, momma."

…

Rose had waited for Steven to come back home. It had been almost an hour and a half, but when she heard flip flops, she knew that Steven was home.

He opened the door to see his mother sitting on the couch in the living room.

"Hey Mom," Steven said.

"Hello Steven. Did you finish putting everything away?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. It took a lot longer than I thought, but we managed to get it all done," Steven replied, taking a seat next to his mother.

Silence.

The silence only lasted for a moment until Rose said, "Steven…"

"Hmm?" Steven replied.

"You know…" Rose began, hesitating slightly, "You know you could talk to me about anything, right?"

Steven looked at his mother and said, "Yeah, I know."

Another silence.

"Hey Mom?" Steven asked.

"Yes?" Rose replied.

"How did you meet Dad?" Steven said.

Rose chuckled and said, "Well, I was on the beach one day…"

…

 **Finally! After a bunch of delays I have finally finished this chapter! I do apologize for taking so long, but I am a college student before a fanfiction writer, so I hope you can forgive me for taking so long.**

 **I wanted to make a chapter that didn't have a monster and had quite a few of the Beach City residents get some of the spotlight. Why did I choose the Mr. Smiley subplot? He was one of the least developed residents of Beach City, and when I started writing the chapter it was right after Sadie's Song aired and Mr. Smiley had a nice appearance in the episode and I wanted to explore him a little bit more.**

 **I also wanted to take the time to thank all of you who support this story. Over four thousand views, seventeen reviews, forty five favorites, and sixty six alerts is amazing.**

 **All of you are amazing for supporting this story, and it's what keeps me writing. I cannot thank you all enough.**

 **Oh yeah, the song choice. I started writing my own song, but then I thought that Love Like You would be a better fit for how the story played out. So I added another verse at the end that I thought made sense based on how the chapter played out.**

 **It may work for some people and it may not work for others, so tell me what you guys think of it.**

 **Thank you for reading, review if you liked it!**

 **Peace.**


End file.
